


Out of Time

by Hitomi_Zotz



Category: Primeval
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:15:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22190917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hitomi_Zotz/pseuds/Hitomi_Zotz
Summary: In one moment Melina loses everyone she loves to a creature that shouldn't exist. Crossing through fractured lights for escape she finds herself in an unfamilar world. Chasing after Helen, Cutter and co hear a human voice in a time before mankind's existence. With no way back, Melina finds herself joining Cutter's group in the present to try and prevent a bleak future whilst dealing with a violent past but what if her existence with them wasn't meant to be and her actions in the past change the present?
Relationships: Abby Maitland/Connor Temple, Claudia Brown/Nick Cutter, Tom Ryan (Primeval)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Devil in the Water

Goue Vlaktes National Park, South Africa

It was just after three in the afternoon, the sun was a little lower in the sky but the air still blazed with a sticky heat. It was the perfect excuse for taking a dip in the pond as Melina Hollywell's friends and siblings kept insisting. As they were visiting the national park Melina worked at she had insisted on completing her work for the day first. Four of their group of seven were staying on the park grounds in a wooden cabin at a reduced cost thanks to Melina. It was one of several cabins rented out by the park.

They had wrapped up a morning of seeing the sights and some of what the safari workers did on a daily basis with Melina's co-worker, top tour guide Abel Ralston, providing some interesting sights most visitors could only dream about. The afternoon had been spent at the safari park headquarters by the group minus Melina, who carried out her main duties of checking the hyenas, the jackals, and the African Wild Dogs. They had spotted hyenas but were also lucky enough to have a family of brown hyenas, which were the rarest of the species.

Melina had rejoined her friends half an hour ago and had finally given into their requests to go the pond that was a well known spot for park workers to cool off when on a break. It was one of those rare spots that was considered predator and pest free. Of course there was no guarantee.

“Alright Melina,” her good friend Amy Young called with a smile, “enough work already, let's swim!”

Melina glanced over at the blonde and smiled back.

Amy Young was someone who initially gave the impression of being out of their depth in the African wilderness but she had embraced every experience of it. Finding a larger than wanted spider in the bathroom, Amy had been the one to safely remove it whilst Todd Gardner and Beth Brook had squealed and tremored in the background. Amy was a tough cookie but also a bright, merry person who could instantly light up a room.

“Aw shucks Amy we didn't bring our swimming gear,” Todd taunted, “guess we'll all have to go as nature intended.”

The brunette boy winked followed by a snicker as Amy, Beth and Melina's younger sister Phoebe all frowned over at him.

Amy gestured outwards with both hands. “Are you missing this weather Todd? It's roasting, I'm sure we can take a dip with our clothes on and dry out just fine after,” she retorted. She spun round to emphasise her point sending her pale blonde hair in all directions. “God it might be boiling but I still love this weather,” she marvelled.

Melina grinned as she spied her older brother Kaden watching Amy quietly with a small smile.

“Alright guys I think we're all in agreement,” Sean Rivers piped up enthusiastically as he rested his hands on his hips and drew himself upright in mock self-importance, “swimming we shall go.”

“No need to make a production of it Sean,” Beth scorned him.

Melina laughed as Sean started to wag his finger at Beth in a scolding manner.

“Young lady I'm just making it clear so we know this decision came about democratically, I wouldn't want complaints later than we forced you women into the waters fully dressed,” Sean retorted. His posh London accent only added to the effect of his words.

“Well we could still take a vote on the clothing,” Todd piped up.

Phoebe hit him a playful smack on the back of his head. “Consider that a response on your vote,” she mocked.

Todd winced at the blow and clapped a hand to the back of his head. “Hey that's intimidation you know!” he protested as his blue eyes darted to her with feigned anger. “Which means this isn't democratic!”

Phoebe rolled her eyes at this.

“Guys you are killing the atmosphere out here,” Amy complained. “Less chat, more swimming and listening to nature. Come on, hear, feel it,” she urged.

Amy raised a hand to her right ear, pushing back her hair as she did. Despite the heat somehow Amy managed to be immune to the curse of frizzy hair, something poor Beth had succumb to, forcing her to keep her dark hair up in a tight bun.

The group obeyed, sharing a moment of silence amongst themselves to take in the ambience of the world around them.

The air was full of sound. There was no traffic, no hum of people or cars, nothing like the fast paced, polluted streets of the English cities that most of them were used to. Here there were bird calls, the trumpet of an elephant in the distance, the chatter of zebras and even the low call of a hungry lion from somewhere out of sight.

Amy looked at Melina appreciatively and gave her a wide smile. “Thanks for bringing us here,” she said sincerely.

“Now who's ruining the ambience?” Todd quipped sardonically.

Phoebe gave him a gentle shove. “Who's ruining the mood?” she retorted with equal taunt.

Todd rubbed his arm. “This is brutality, definitely,” he complained jovially.

Without warning, Todd grabbed Phoebe about the shoulders prompting a shriek from her as he rushed her in the direction of the pond.

The group watched as with a wave of limbs and some skidding on the dust, the pair careened over the edge together and into the pond with a loud splash.

Although it was deemed a pond it was a large enough body of water. Shallow at one edge, it had a maximum depth of approximately eight feet in the centre depending of course on the seasons. Although the day was warm there had been some summer showers before their arrival so the pond was a good depth today.

A few grey crowned cranes at the edge of the pond gave them disgruntled squawks but remained where they were as they seemed to know the humans weren't a threat.

Phoebe and Todd rose separately, Phoebe's face was indignant as she splashed in Todd's direction with a curse.

“You could have let me take my shoes off first!” Phoebe snapped.

Todd laughed. “Hey mine are still on too,” he reminded her.

“Well that's the water broken,” Sean said enthusiastically as he kicked off his trainers and bent down to tug off his socks, “and neither of them got eaten by a crocodile so it's time to jump in.”

“Be careful,” Melina cautioned, “it's only about eight feet deep, wouldn't want any of you breaking your neck with some unnecessary somersaults.”

Sean turned to face Melina, while walking backwards to the pond as he did. “Ah my good hostess, we wouldn't want that on your conscience,” he said with a grin, “but you think too highly of me and my gymnastic skills. I am a humble swimmer with only the doggy paddle at my dis-”

Sean was unable to finish his sentence as he took one step too many and found himself falling ungracefully backwards into the water.

Amy and Beth giggled at the display.

Amy turned a mischievous grin in Kaden's direction. “Come on Kaden, race you there,” she suggested. “Beth baby count us down.”

Amy whipped off her shades and abandoned them with her sandals and khaki jacket.

Beth nodded eagerly. “Alright, runners get set.”

Kaden, stunned, suddenly flustered as he glanced from Amy to the pond and attempted to ready his feet.

“On three,” Beth said firmly as she raised her right arm into the air. “One! Two! Three!” She swung her arm down dramatically.

Kaden and Amy both broken into a sprint.

Kaden moved like a true runner, arms pumping in time to his steps as he took lengthy strides. It was easy for him, he had done track running in high school and kept it up at college. He was well known back in England for his sprinting and had earned several medals. Yet it was one thing to have the skills and to know the track and quite another to do it off guard with a distracting blonde beauty for a competitor.

Kaden couldn't resist slipping a blue eyed stare in Amy's direction to see where she was.

Amy had had the closer start but she couldn't match Kaden's speed.

Kaden made himself slow up, unaware of how noticeable it was to his sister Melina. He waited, trying to time it in his head, not wanting to give Amy a win or rob her of a victory either. A tie would be fair.

The pair hit the water at almost the exact same time and it was impossible to tell who had hit the water first.

“Well I'm done waiting, let's go Melina!” Beth called.

Beth abandoned her shoes, hat, sunglasses and bag with Amy's belongings before she hastened to the pond enthusiastically.

Melina considered that they could have better prepared for it. Sure they had suntan lotion and bug spray on them but no towels and the ground was roasting, not exactly ideal for running in bare feet.

The young woman raised a hand to shield her grey-green eyes as she looked out to her friends and siblings. She smiled at the sight of them splashing around and giggling with one another.

It had been six months since they had all been together. Six months since Melina had gotten her placement out here. It had seemed like an easy decision on paper, leave England for a year to work in an actual safari park. She had spent time back home in zoos working with predatory animals- hyenas, coyotes, maned wolves and European wolves but it was nothing like this. Yet her love for animals wasn't enough to entirely wipe out her love for her friends and family. The safari park had kept her plenty busy but it was only when saw everyone now that she realised how much she had missed them.

Melina lowered her hand and moved to the pond with a grin, there was no point observing her friends when she could be enjoying the fun. She stepped up to the edge and crouched down, dipping her feet in first.

Kaden spied the glimmer of unease in his sister's eyes and swam towards her.

“It's okay,” he assured as he gave her a calm stare. “Water's lovely and it's shallow here.”

Melina nodded as she rested her hands on the edge and prepared to ease herself down. It wasn't that she disliked water per say it was just that she didn't think it was something that could be trusted. Any body of water could hold secrets, even ones crystal clear could have something down there burrowed beneath the sand or soil. Any body of water could be treacherous as well, even if it seemed calm there could be weeds to tangle people or a sudden dip or slope.

Melina shrugged off her unease and pushed herself forward, trusting her brother's judgement. She would stick to the shallow bit.

The water shocked Melina slightly as she slipped in despite being a pleasant temperature. She kicked down instinctively, needing to feel earth below. Her feet brushed against dirt before she recoiled her toes, suddenly fearful of what else might be there. She bobbed about unsteadily, flinching when her brother's hand suddenly gripped her right arm.

“Remember what we practised,” he murmured.

Melina nodded, thinking back to the lessons she had shared back home under her brother's supervision.

For a few moments Melina bobbed about, attempting an awkward breast stroke. She was so caught up in it she didn't notice the change. It was Phoebe who picked up on it.

Phoebe, out in the middle of the pond with Todd, tensed up suddenly and looked about in confusion. “Guys isn't it kind of quiet?” she quipped.

Todd smirked at her. “You mean we aren't yelling enough?” he joked.

Phoebe shook her head nervously as she moved about the pond slowly, glancing around with unease. “Those birds have gone,” she murmured.

“Good,” Todd enthused, “I didn't-”

Todd didn't get to finish his sentence as the sudden rush of water shooting upwards drowned him out.

The pond surface came to life, churning and frothing as a huge black serpent came shooting out of it. Todd was lost in a rush of blackness. He was confused as his lungs filled with water and his neck suddenly roared in pain. His mind screamed in panic and he couldn't even fathom what was happening as his body tumbled about in a cloud of reddening water.

Phoebe had no time to react as she found herself surrounded by a mass of black scales belonging to a body so wide and long it seemed to fill the pond. She saw the eyes that seemed directed at her, emotionless and gleaming brown, to the owner this wasn't personal, it harboured nothing towards her except a need for food. In that moment Phoebe felt her mortality as she realised she had in an instant been stripped of her humanity and reduced to prey.

In the commotion the pond itself seemed to have gained a current which drew everyone inwards towards the devil serpent.

Melina couldn't think. There was suddenly too much noise. Everyone was screaming. The water had been frothing like a geyser and even now it still bubbled. She glimpsed red colouring it and knew it was blood but she didn't know whose.

She saw a face, serpentine with a brown reptilian eye that glimpsed her way as the head moved past her getting closer to Phoebe. Melina's mind wanted to suggest snake but it was bigger than any she had ever seen or known to exist. Its body brushed against her, large enough to hurt as it moved with a frightening speed. The force pushed her down under the water and suddenly she had another problem.

Kaden saw his sister Phoebe turn blue. He heard her breaths for life become forced out whimpers and then he heard the loud crack that broke her ribcage. He tried to move to her but there was too much snake and its body was too formidable to pass. He looked about anxiously for anything that could help and glimpsed Melina going under.

Kaden turned an angst ridden stare back to Phoebe and his face blanched as he saw blood spatter out of her mouth.

Kaden took a breath and plunged under the water. He couldn't look at Phoebe, it couldn't be real, it wasn't possible! He couldn't even figure out what the hell was happening. He told himself to focus on Melina.

Melina found herself caught in a sudden suction without warning. Something was pulling her down, dragging her to a watery death. Wide eyed and terrified she looked for the source and was immediately awe struck.

It was like the water had been shattered somehow. Brilliant particles of white, diamond shaped lights were dancing at the bottom of the pond. It was mesmerising and beautiful and completely impossible. She wondered if it was a hallucination brought about from drowning as it drew her in.

Kaden saw it too as he found himself helpless to the same force of suction. He watched in horror as Melina went towards it and vanished.

Kaden couldn't understand. Melina wasn't in the lights, she was simply gone. He found himself getting closer to the lights and suddenly his body tingled as he passed into them. He couldn't even explain the sensation he felt. For a moment there was only a blinding white light and a sensation like he was crossing through water and yet not water, something warmer and thicker, like liquid metal might feel perhaps, it was strange but it didn't last long.

Kaden felt a shudder as the water temperature changed slightly and the feeling of suction passed. Desperate for air he didn't think, he just move instinctively up.

Kaden broke the surface with a gasp that turned into a cry of surprise. The dusty gold surroundings of plains was gone, replaced instead by a variety of greens from jungle foliage.

“What the hell is this?” he gasped.

“Kaden!”

Kaden turned at the cry and saw Melina just as confused as she tried hard not to flail in the water in a moment of panic.

Kaden moved towards her with a hard, fast shoulder stroke, determined to get to her as soon as he could. They were still in some sort of pond only it was wider and murkier and looked like it was going to be harder to get out of. The banks of it were steep, raised up with long stems of grass and a few vines hanging over.

“Kaden don't!” Melina called back. “Your splashing it's going to attract something!”

Something. Melina wondered what the hell something was. Where were they? She wondered dumbly if they had died, had the light been a crossover of some sort? Well this sure as shit didn't seem like heaven but it wasn't quite how she expected hell to be either.

Kaden reached his sister's side. He was still pale and felt himself turning numb as he started to head into shock. He saw Phoebe's lips parting to spit out the red droplets of her fading life and shook his head to shake the image. It couldn't be real, none of this could. He figured he was hallucinating, dreaming maybe, was he drowning? Kaden didn't know, he was a good swimmer, it seemed unlikely but what else was going on?

Melina turned an anxious stare on her brother. Her murky grey-green eyes were entirely too wide and the whites almost filled them. “Kaden we need to get out of the water,” she said quietly.

Kaden nodded agreeably although he wondered about the light show below that had delivered them here.

“Now,” Melina insisted.

“Alright,” Kaden attempted to sound soothing but his voice was harsh. He was just as frightened as his sister was.

Kaden gestured with one hand to the right where a sturdy vine looked like it was within reach. “Head for the vine,” he ordered.

They moved together, trying to be calm in the water.

They were unaware of the predator moving below. Built for its surroundings, the Acherontisuchus was able to use its webbed feet to move through the water with ease. Its golden-green eyes had little difficulty in spying its prey through the murky clouds of disturbed dirt in the waters and although its sense of smell was lacking as it had its nostrils closed under the water its hearing still functioned well despite the water. Four times the size of its victims with four powerful feet to match their puny two, it knew it would be upon them in no time.

Melina glimpsed a ripple in the water and immediately speeded up. “Quick Kaden!” she urged her brother.

She thought of how fast the serpent had come upon them and knew subtly was out the window if it was here. A small voice tried to remind Melina that most water predators sensed vibrations and she was better sticking with calm over speed but her mind had finally given up on logic for panic. All she could see was that impossibly large, black, serpentine face.

Kaden moved quicker too, just as terrified of what might be in the waters with them as his sister. A brief thought of what might be there outside the pond ran through his head but he dismissed, he'd focus on that when he was there.

Melina reached the edge first and stretched up for the vine with a grunt. She grasped it in both hands but struggled to get her feet up to climb. Her feet kicked against soft earth, loosening into the water as they skidded back down.

“I can't get up!” Melina cried out in a panic.

Kaden felt the water moving beneath him again. He knew something was there. He looked to his sister with a serious stare, not daring to look down. He felt a current moving up and knew there was no time.

Kaden grasped his sister about the waist with both hands and pushed her up as hard and fast as he could. He felt his body slip down into the water and sputtered as it splashed into his nostrils and mouth.

Melina stretched up as her brother raised her and got a higher hold on the vine. It was enough for her to get her feet higher up and into a better hold against the dirt. This time she was able to dig them into the bank and get a foothold.

Melina climbed as quickly as she could but speed was impossible, the earth was loose and the vine was slick with damp. She gasped and grunted as she moved slower than she would have liked, terrified of slipping back down.

The top of the bank became visible, moist grass and earth. She reached out with her right hand, feeling a prickle of alarm as her fingers slipped through the earth and her hand threatened to slide over the edge.

As Melina got a hold of the surface at last and hoisted herself up she was suddenly shocked by a violent spray of water.

Melina shrieked in surprise and turned back to the pond with a look of horror.

She glimpsed the form only briefly. It was all teeth, a greenish-grey snout and a powerful jaw attached to a large body that was all tough muscle and mostly still concealed in the water. The jaws clamped around her brother and with a yell of agony and a spray of blood he was gone, dragged back to the murky darkness.

“KADEN!” Melina screamed into the water.

A rising puff of blood was her only response.


	2. Time Traveler

“After her!” Claudia Brown gave what most of the soldiers thought was an obvious order.

As Captain Ryan broke into a sprint he raised his M4A1 Carbine rifle slightly in both hands, ready to turn the nozzle fast and fire if necessary. He thought it was easy for her to say, she hadn't set foot into one of these anomalies yet. It was always easy to give the order but a lot harder to follow it through when you knew it might mean danger.

Captain Ryan was aware of Nick Cutter just within his peripheral vision, sense forgotten over his estranged wife as usual. Emotional attachments, it was one of the many reasons why Ryan believed this should strictly be a military mission much as he liked Cutter.

Even though the giant crocodile beast that lay annihilated nearby and Helen Cutter taking advantage of the chaos to run through an anomaly had added some spice to the day, Captain Ryan sadly couldn't consider this day to be out of the ordinary anymore. Who would have thought serving as a soldier in the Gulf War would lead to this?

They cleared the lights of the anomaly. The sensation was instant. Ryan had yet to adjust that odd feeling of warmth of light that bathed him. It sounded nice on paper but to Ryan it was like crossing over, sending him and his men one step closer to death each time as they could never predict what might be on the other side.

The first sensation was humidity, extra unpleasant for someone in black combat gear. Black was good for the deserts but khaki was better for the jungle in Ryan's opinion. It was another problem with the anomalies, one could never predict the terrain they would be intruding into.

He saw Helen sprinting along through a cluster of large palm trees with ease.

The soldiers followed gamely, focused on their quarry but trying to keep their senses open to their surroundings.

Nick Cutter kept up the pace as he followed after his estranged wife. He was beginning to tire of her ability to be elusive even as a small part of him admired her ability to survive so capably in these different worlds. He couldn't comprehend why she refused to stay with them in the present and work with them on these anomalies. Sure there was a sense of being in a prison within the Home Office but that was only because Helen had a lot to explain to the Home Office officials, something she surely couldn't deny. Claudia and her boss Lester were bureaucrats, they weren't going to have Helen vanish into some unknown cell, she just needed to consider compromising a little. They deserved that much. Nick was bitter that after eight years she still couldn't give him a satisfactory explanation for her absence.

It was a struggle to avoid tripping over large vines sprawled on the ground as well as overgrown roots and concealed rocks. Helen seemed to manage it effortlessly as she zigzagged in an attempt to lose her trail.

Nick was conscious of the noise of the soldiers' pursuit. They were fast but almost clumsy despite being trained in tact and subtlety. They knew the dangers of a single branch snapping underfoot and yet somehow all that knowledge and training had gone out the window. Nick supposed it was the bigger goal, if they were discreet they lost Helen but he worried about what dangers the noise might draw to them.

The redhead was too focused himself in the chase to truly take in the world. It was a blur of colour, mainly shades of green and brown but there were numerous flowers and fruits to add décor to the terrain.

Helen, still a good distance ahead of her pursuers, seized an opportunity. She spied a small gap under a cluster of low hanging leaves that was at the start of a bend that indicated the start of a hill descending. She dropped instinctively, sliding under the leaves and down the muddy slope. Her knife was out before she made the manoeuvre and as she spied the stagnant water that lay below, she instinctively jammed it into a tree to slow her journey.

Helen's arm jerked with the movement but she had dug her feet in as well to lessen the blow and her slide hadn't gotten momentum yet so despite the sharp pang of pain she mercifully hadn't pulled her arm from its socket.

The slope wasn't steep, she could risk continuing the journey down on foot with enough trees to grab to steady her balance to avoid a dip in the murky waters.

The soldiers skidded to a halt where Helen had vanished. No one had seen her sudden drop and slide. They glanced about in confusion, instinctively putting their backs to one another so no one was vulnerable. At least that's what they hoped.

As Helen was preparing to stand as quietly as she could lest she lose her advantage all hell broke lose with the soldiers.

The giant snake descended from the trees above where it had blended in with vines, still as it contemplated prey until food had unwittingly stumbled in below it.

It was fast and vicious, sinking its fangs into one man's shoulder and neck with a head so big it could have remove the man's own clean off his shoulders with little effort.

The spray of gunfire was instinctive. The men were in a panic, screaming and shooting at the large, black mass of flesh that was descending on them rapidly.

All Captain Ryan could think as he aimed his rifle was that it was the biggest snake he had ever seen.

Unlike his men, Ryan waited for the opportunity. The bullets weren't doing a lot of damage to the flesh, the snake was becoming agitated not frightened.

It hissed and wrapped itself around one of the soldiers, crushing him instantly with little effort.

Nick winced at the loud crunch of bones as a gasp of death escaped the soldier.

The snake moved for the others and Ryan glimpsed its face. The eyes held nothing in them, it was just a beast acting on instinct.

Ryan aimed at a gleaming eye as big as saucer and fired.

The bullet struck, liquefying the eye in a spray of blood. Blinded in one eye and suddenly vulnerable, the snake moved for a retreat as the crack of gunfire sent more bullets its way. It moved back up to the trees, vanishing as it quickly as it had appeared, abandoning its meal as it did.

Ryan exchanged a glance with Nick.

Nick knew what the captain was thinking, what all his soldiers were thinking. They sure as hell weren't staying here searching for Helen with something like that roaming about.

Nick glanced back the way they had come, wondering how far they had run and how far they were from the anomaly.

“KADEN!”

The yell was so unexpected it caught everyone off guard.

The soldiers, two of whom were trying to tend to their bitten friend, raised their guns with a wary surprise.

“That...sounded human,” Ryan voiced his thoughts doubtfully.

Had it been a trick of the wind? A distorted animal sound that seemed human but wasn't, the way cats' howling could sound like babies crying, hyenas could mimic an almost humane laughter and of course birds could even copy human speech? Hell, was it Helen? It hadn't sounded like her and why would she be yelling anyway?

They were ready to dismiss it until a scream followed.

“That's not possible,” Ryan murmured warily. “Is it?” He looked to Nick for confirmation, having no sense of what era they might be in except that it was the past. He searched the jungle, trying to trace the source. It didn't seem far.

“Well we're here aren't we?” Nick pointed out. He pushed back his damp soaked, golden auburn hair and turned to the right. “It's that way,” he said.

Ryan looked to the soldiers. “Mac, Watkins, get Jackson back through the anomaly, and Jenkins' body,” he ordered the pair tending the wounded man. “The rest of you with me.”

The soldiers nodded although it was obvious from their faces that they wanted to retreat. The snake had been huge, easily forty feet. Were there more of it and what else was here? No one wanted those questions answered.

There were no more screams, just wild, anguished sobs but they were loud enough to follow.

Ryan and Nick headed back through the trees to the right, following the ground as it began to slope downwards leading them through to a clearing where a large body of water glinted up at them. It was a murky pond with steep edges and an uncertain depth. Its most bizarre feature was the figure of a woman sitting back from its edge crying.

Ryan and Nick exchanged another dubious glance. Neither one could believe what they were seeing.

Nick looked back to the young woman and grabbed Ryan's arm suddenly.

If there had been more foliage on the ground Nick wouldn't have spotted it. Its dark flesh almost blended in with the earth it slid across and it moved so slow that it was difficult to spy but it was so large it could only be so discreet. Nick only spied it as a stray beam of sunlight struck its flesh showing a sheen of black scales.

“Great,” Ryan muttered under his breath as he readied his rifle.

It was another very large snake.

It was stalking the woman, slow because it could be but if it sensed them it would move fast and she would be gone. It hadn't neared her yet but Ryan didn't doubt it could clear the distance.

“It follows vibrations and heat,” Nick explained quietly. “Look we need a distraction and we need to get to her as fast as we can while that's happening.”

Ryan nodded and glanced back to his men. “Hunter, Bluestone, just start shooting at the damn thing,” he ordered. “A spray of bullets right in front of it so it doesn't think about continuing in that direction, kill it if you can.”

“Now really-” Nick began a protest as he looked at Ryan in irritation. They were the trespassers and he couldn't even begin to consider how screwed up the past might become with all this activity.

Ryan ignored him. “Either the snake dies or she does,” he said bluntly.

Ryan waved his hand down in a command for the order to proceed.

As gunfire tore up the silence the snake had been taking advantage of, Ryan moved forward, low and fast. He was down and by the suddenly shocked woman within seconds but he was wary that it wasn't fast enough.

She had turned at the gunfire, stunned and her eyes were wide in horror as she saw the giant snake raised up as it hissed in anger and tried to recoil from the spray of bullets.

“On your feet, now,” Ryan ordered.

She stared up at him with blank eyes, almost entirely white as her irises and pupils shrunk back in shock.

Ryan reached down and yanked her up.

The snake sensed the vibrations and it came forward, moving hard and fast through the bullet spray, determined to get its food and now outraged that something else might be trying to steal its meal.

Ryan aimed his rifle and fired. One bullet sliced neatly through a nostril.

The woman was on her feet.

Ryan gave her a hard shove and pointed to where Cutter and the soldiers remained. “Go, go!” he ordered.

He fired again and again. He saw the black form sliding towards him, it was death, he knew it. A few inches more and he might be the one who was snake food.

A cannister flew threw the air and suddenly the jungle in front of Ryan was full of smoke. It was the unexpected distraction he needed.

Ryan turned and raced back to the slope where the others stood.

Nick's blue eyes went wide. Out of the smoke the gigantic snake came, fierce and fast as it followed Ryan and the woman, furious now as it moved with a raised head, almost gliding over the earth, passing by rocks and vines like they were nothing.

Ryan saw the look on Nick's face and his men's, he saw the guns go up and he instinctively raised a hand to the woman.

Ryan slammed the woman down hard into the earth as he made himself drop with her. It was a calculated risk, it ended their retreat and had them suddenly motionless and ready for the predator but it ended the risk of them getting shot. He had to hope the bullets would do their job. He reasoned that at least he wouldn't have long to work out if he'd made the right call.

The bullets roared overhead. Ryan's ears were ringing and his nostrils reeked with the stench of the damp earth his face was pushed into. He kept his hand down instinctively on the woman, holding her in place but she was frozen up and it was unnecessary. He felt her clothes damp beneath his palm and clinging to her flesh.

Darkness pooled over them as the shadow of the snake rose behind them. The coolness of it was all Ryan felt. There was no muscular body wrapped in scales trying to suffocate him. No fangs piercing his flesh and shredding him into oblivion.

He'd lost two men in mere minutes. He knew somehow that Jackson hadn't made it, there had been too much blood. He wondered dumbly in this moment of hell how many now were dead since this madness had started? They were trained professionals but certainly not trained for this, no one was trained for this. They were men he had led to their deaths.

The gunfire stopped but it took a moment for Ryan to realise it as his ears continued to ring.

The captain heard a soldier shouting but it was hard to make out the words. He raised his head slowly and looked forward first. The men looked wary and anxious but the terror on their faces was was lessened.

Ryan raised his head higher and glanced back. The terrain was a mess. Foliage had been crushed and forced aside, the earth was deep in a pointed track and red liquid stained a large area but the creature was gone.

Ryan moved quickly, getting to his feet and pulling the woman up with him. Gone wasn't dead, it was time to retreat.

“We need to go back,” Ryan commanded. He fixed a firm glance on Nick as he pulled the woman along, daring Nick to argue for Helen.

Nick was ashen faced, shocked to silence by what he had just witnessed. The brute force and determination of the creature had been almost unrelenting. He was unnerved by the encounter and marvelled that Ryan was somehow still standing. Nick brought a small, weak smile to the surface as he nodded. “Yeah, I think you're right.”

Nick glanced to the woman. She was wearing camel shorts and a cream, cotton shirt, no shoes or socks, and she was visibly soaked from head to toe. None of it gave him clues as to her identity or origin.

“Questions later surely professor,” Ryan commented pointedly.

Nick nodded again, he was just as eager to leave as everyone else. Helen had made her choice to come here. She knew the way to retreat and it was up to her to choose it.

Ryan released the woman and took the lead, walking until he realised the woman wasn't moving at all. He rolled his blue eyes despairingly and retreated to her. He knew it was shell shock, he recognised the symptoms and he sympathised but he had no time for it. He was the leader, he couldn't afford the distraction but he took her by the arm anyway and pulled her along.

The woman didn't resist, she moved almost robotically, her feet taking four fast steps just to match one of Ryan's strides. If the branches and rocks underfoot were hurting her exposed soles she wasn't showing it.

Ryan knew he could palm her off to another soldier to bring or even Nick but he couldn't have them put a risk by having her as a distraction. He had chosen to help her, he had to bear the responsibility.

Ryan glanced left and right and then instinctively up before he continued on their way.

Bullet casings let them know they had arrived back to the point of the first attack.

Everyone looked instinctively up but the leaves were large and cast many shadows, and vines in the darkness bore similar shapes to serpents. It was impossible to spy out any danger.

“There's noise,” Nick said reassuringly, “listen, we're safe for now.”

He was right, animals of uncertain species called out to one another as they moved through the jungle.

They continued walking, ears strained for noise, wary of when the silence might come again.

Everyone froze when their path was briefly blocked by a surprising intruder. The guns were up again but no one fired.

It looked like a turtle that ambled through only it was as big as a Smart car. It paid them no heed as it continued on its journey through the jungle in search of food.

“Why is everything bigger?” a soldier lamented.

Nick watched it go in awe. It had similar colouring to turtles he'd seen in the present, muted shades of green and brown to blend in with its surroundings. Its shell was gigantic and looked impenetrable. He didn't think such a beast would be prey for too many things out here and wondered if the large snake would even be capable of crushing such a large, thick shell.

Once the giant turtle had passed they continued on their way.

The anomaly appeared in sight, its blinking lights a beacon welcoming them home to the present. Nick realised worriedly that it had shrunk and the lights were jolting fast.

“It's going to close!” he shouted.

They broke into a run instinctively. Ryan moved twice as fast as normal to account for the mute woman he pulled yet still he hesitated when he reached the lights, waiting to see his men safely through first.

They all made it through with an obvious sense of relief.

They stumbled into to a children's park area, which had been taken over by soldiers and government bureaucrats. There was a large, black sheet of tarp hiding what drawn them to the area in the first place- some kind of gigantic, prehistoric crocodile or alligator that had come through at their arrival.

It was Helen who had warned them about the anomaly. In the chaos she had escaped into it just as the crocodile had been finished off. A planned opportunity or one of luck they didn't know. It was impossible to tell what Helen actually knew about the time phenomenons and what she pretended to know. She had lied before about sabre toothed tigers and instead their had been dodos. Unfortunately and unexpectedly they had turned out to be just as fatal for someone.

Claudia Brown, standing with her arms folded, looked poised with a professional cool calm as she tried to keep her emotions from her face. She suddenly lost her stern stance as she realised that Ryan wasn't holding Helen by the arm but someone else entirely.

Claudia's arms dropped by her sides as she took a step towards them, pausing as the anomaly flickered out of sight.

“Um Captain, who is this?” Claudia asked the obvious question.

Ryan gave her a rare smile laced with dark humour. “No idea,” he retorted.


	3. Identity

James Lester peered in through the glass at the young woman with intrigue. Administrator of the anomaly operation, it was not exactly the job he had envisioned when he had joined the ranks of government workers. It wasn't exactly a job he was thriving at either, so far under his watch five civilians had wormed their way into the workplace and he couldn't seem to get them out of it, not even for their own good. Now here was another only he knew she was going to cause a much bigger problem for him.

Behind the horizontal window in a medical room a young woman sat alone in a chair linked up to a drip of fluids.

“Has she said anything yet?” James asked the doctor who had retreated from the room.

The doctor glanced to the young woman through the pane and shook his head. “No but maybe it's the environment,” he suggested. His voice came with a Northern Irish twang.

“What environment?” James snapped as he frowned at the man. He was the fifth civilian who had badgered his way into this work.

A victim of the parasite dodos from an anomaly had carried, the doctor had been cured via surgical removal of the parasite and, given his profession, had known all too well of the abnormalities of it. James had to consider the irony that a bloody doctor of all people would get an infection from the past. They had stonewalled him for a while and then he had made threats to go public. Given he had the evidence of the parasite and as a doctor he would be considered a respectful citizen probably not prone to exaggeration, had led James to conclude that they may as well have a doctor on the team.

The doctor, Jason O'Hare, had found himself thrust into a world he had not been expecting. He had figured the government was cooking up viruses or maybe the military. Time portals bringing primordial diseases from the past to the present had not been on his radar.

“It's like a prison,” Nick Cutter's blunt voice came to add to James' misery.

James turned with a frown, which deepened as he saw that Nick wasn't alone but had the full army of curious tourists with him.

Connor Temple was already darting forward to press his face up to the glass and ogle at the woman within. He had gotten barely a glimpse of her at the park before she had been ushered into a van and taken to the bowels of the Home Office.

“He's right,” Dr O'Hare murmured dryly, “or a zoo,” he added pointedly as he gave Connor a scolding look.

Jason was tied to Connor in a strange and terrible manner. The one who had passed on the dodo's parasite to him had been Connor's friend Tom. Passing it on had not been enough for Tom as another had remained inside him trying to dominate him before giving up and dying, taking Tom with him. Every time Jason and Connor saw one another they thought back to that terrible time. Jason still bore the physical scars whilst Connor carried the mental ones and a heavy sense of guilt for teasing Tom about the mysterious job he worked in but never disclosing enough of it to Tom. It was nosiness and jealousy that had driven Tom and his and Connor's other friend Duncan to tracking and chasing Connor, leading to the fatal encounter with a parasite carrying dodo.

“Connor she's not an exhibition,” Abby Maitland scolded the eager dark haired male as she came to stand behind him.

Abby was peering through the glass too but a little more discreetly than Connor.

Connor glanced over at Abby with a bashful smile. “Sorry but come on, she is fascinating. I mean what was she doing there? How did she even get there?”

“The same way we did,” Nick said, confident it had to be the only explanation.

James glanced to him and Stephen Hart, the last of the group, whose claim to being necessary was being a lab technician under Nick. As a junior shooting and fencing Olympic prospect Stephen did bring other skills James supposed but he was no military man and he was no professor either.

Stephen was just as interested in the woman as everyone else but he hung back, unwilling to view her like an animal in a cage.

“So what, she entered through an anomaly and then...” James looked at Nick for an explanation.

“Lost someone,” it was Ryan who gave it as he arrived with Claudia beside him.

Ryan had been checking on his men. He had been right, Jackson had died before he had even been taken through the anomaly. Jackson and Jenkins, two more deaths to cover up, two more funerals to be arranged. Jackson had two sisters he had been close with and a girlfriend. Jenkins had a young son with an ex-girlfriend.

“She called out a name, Kaden,” Captain Ryan explained calmly.

“Kaden?” Connor quipped as he glanced at Ryan with interest.

To Connor Temple the soldier was an enigma. Connor had an idea of what soldiers were from the movies and video games, battle hardy men who swore and usually had painful back stories or hidden criminal histories that had forced them into the army. He knew it was an exaggeration but Captain Ryan had still dented the image more than a little although he had created a new admiration in the army man for Connor. Ryan was mysterious after all, a man of few words, with a back story Connor still had to learn about.

“That's an odd name,” Connor murmured, “what if it's a code?” he marvelled.

“It's Greek,” Ryan retorted bluntly.

“How do you know that?” Stephen quipped before he could help it.

Ryan gave him a wilting look. “I've travelled,” he said, still blunt.

“Greek?” Connor was back to pressing his face against the glass. “Does she look Greek? She does have a nice tan.”

“Connor,” Abby scorned him. She was looking too.

The woman was swarthy skinned but natural or sun induced or even a product of the bottle, it was difficult to tell.

“You know that glass is two way,” Jason chided them, “she can see you watching her.”

“Oh.” Abby pulled back instinctively.

“She's been through a very traumatic experience,” Nick reminded them in a scolding tone. He folded his arms and turned a stern blue look of disapproval on James. “And we don't know how bad it was before we found her.”

James continued to frown. “Well professor,” he snapped as he gestured his arms outwards, “what would you have me do? Release her to the wild?” he queried sarcastically.

“Get her out of that room at least and maybe someone should talk to her,” Nick suggested, “someone nice.”

“I could,” Claudia offered. She stepped forward, presenting herself to Lester with a smile. “I'm a woman, she might be more willing to talk to me.”

“Yeah, the stuffy bureaucrat, that will put her at ease,” Stephen slammed the suggestion with a roll of his eyes.

“Stephen let's be nice,” Nick murmured.

Stephen gave his boss a muted look of protest. He knew why Nick was scolding him, one had to be blind to miss the sparks darting between Nick and Claudia. Whilst Stephen was happy for Nick finding someone both after Helen's loss and after her unexpected return, he did consider because it was Claudia it presented a conflict of interests.

“He has a point,” Jason spoke up. He looked weary, fed up with the bickering while the woman sat in there, perfectly unresponsive in a state of shock he wasn't sure how to cure.

Feeling Claudia's dark eyes boring into him as she awaited an explanation, Jason gave her a calm but icy gaze. It was a clinical stare he had mastered for bureaucrats who didn't want expensive but necessary surgery carried out on patients and badgered him for cheaper alternatives that simply didn't exist.

“It will be like an interrogation for her,” Jason reasoned. He gestured to Ryan. “It might be even worse with him in the soldier gear but then again he did help pull it from the danger.” He glanced at Nick. “What about you, you were there with her?”

“Yes,” Nick admitted with a slightly awkward grin, “but I didn't really do any saving as such.”

“Hmm.” The doctor nodded. “Well, right now you two are as familiar as faces get for her until she can be identified.” He turned his stare back on the captain. “Maybe, Captain Ryan you could lose the artillery and ask her something. You saw what she saw out there, at least you won't think her mad, that's a start.”

“Oh I get it,” Connor said enthusiastically. “Claudia wasn't there so she might not talk about a giant snake because she doesn't know if Claudia will believe or not but Nick and Ryan have to because they saw it too.”

“Them,” Ryan corrected, “there were two.” Ryan gave Lester a stony stare. “And there's that social worker feeling again,” he complained.

James Lester glanced at Connor pointedly as he replied, “I get that feeling every day.”

James sighed and turned his stare back to Ryan. “If it gets her talking two minutes in with her won't kill you, will it captain?”

Nick and Ryan both frowned at James' word choice.

Claudia folded her arms as her eyes sparked with annoyance. “Really?” she exclaimed. “You think the captain is going to be more pleasant for her than me? I mean I'm not that bad.”

Connor gave her a grin. “Actually you can be a little scary when you shout,” he pointed out.

Abby stifled a giggle as she saw Claudia's look of rage. Nick was smiling too.

“I wouldn't shout at her!” Claudia snapped. “Honestly!” she exclaimed as she saw Nick's smile. She pushed a hand through her copper-brown hair and frowned at the group. “You're all being ridiculous and unreasonable. I am human you know, I can show compassion.”

“Look, let's try it with the captain first,” the doctor suggested. He glanced pointedly at Ryan's rifle. “Why do you even have that in here?” he queried.

“Precaution,” Ryan retorted calmly.

Connor finally came away from the glass to approach the soldier with the smile of an excitable child. “Oh, can I hold it for you?” he offered. “I've always wanted to see what it's like to hold a rifle.”

Ryan gazed down at him with scorn before he glanced to Nick and Stephen.

“And you're still going to have to wait,” Stephen said as he stepped forward and offered out a hand.

Ryan unslung the strap but hesitated before handing it over. Every inch of him screamed that it was wrong to surrender a weapon, especially to a civilian.

Stephen gave the captain a cool, mocking stare. “I can be trusted, I know how to handle a weapon,” he assured, “and I know how to keep one stationary.”

Ryan nodded reluctantly as he handed it over.

“Hey why him and not me?” Connor demanded.

“Because you obviously want to test it,” Abby pointed out.

“Well wouldn't you?” Connor quipped as he glanced her way. “How often do you get to hold a rifle?”

“Connor I think it's a bit big for you,” Stephen teased with a grin as he swung the strap over his shoulder.

Abby eyed him up with a low key stare. It was hard not to be enamoured by the image of the muscular man now donning a gun and looking every inch the heroic rebel.

Stephen Hart was the definition of tall, dark and handsome and even after learning he had spoken of dating her in a fever despite having a girlfriend, Abby was finding it hard to turn her attraction off. She had told Connor it was just a physical thing, and believed it herself but when Stephen had told her things between him and his girlfriend weren't the same anymore she had dared to feel a flutter of hope renewed in herself.

Connor laughed at the jibe. At first his snickers for Stephen's mockery had been forced, usually because Abby was there and Connor didn't want to act like the jibes hurt but now Connor didn't mind them as much. He realised Stephen wasn't bullying him as such and his intention was never to offend, rather it was the teasing that was commonplace amongst boys and on some level Connor liked it because it made him feel like he had something like friendship with Stephen.

Ryan just rolled his pale blue eyes and looked to the doctor impatiently.

Dr. O'Hare led the way back to the heavy, steel door that guarded the room. He frowned at the keypad before keying in the six digit number to release the door.

“This is my point,” he lamented before stepping into the room.

“Nothing wrong with some healthy caution,” James reasoned. “She could be dangerous.”

“She sure looks it,” Abby remarked sarcastically. She was in agreement with the doctor, the woman shouldn't be contained like this.

“Oh you green warriors,” James scorned, “you'd have me make a petting zoo for the creatures before you'd let me kill them for everyone's safety.”

“Well we don't have to go that far,” Stephen protested.

“They're animals, what they do is based on instinct,” Nick reminded James. He pointed towards the glass pane. “That is a human being, what she does is a little more complicated.”

James stared back at Nick and wondered if the man realised he was making his case for him. “That's exactly my point,” he said. “We can't predict what she might do.”

Connor rubbed at his bare arms and glanced at the others with another jovial look. “It's cold down here,” he remarked.

Connor was right. They occupied a corridor designed with dark walls and flooring, lit with spotlights and kept a cool temperature with air conditioning. Its design was deliberately clinical as several lab rooms occupied the area.

“It certainly is,” Nick murmured as he held James' stare.

In the medical room, Jason approached the young woman with care. She had looked up sharply at the intrusion and the whites of her eyes were showing again. Jason had considered a sedation if only to bring her some calm but she wasn't acting out, there had been no outbursts and no real need for it save for a higher than normal pulse.

The doctor raised his hands slightly before lowering them in what he hoped was a universal gesture of calm. He didn't even know what language she spoke. Was it Greek?

“You're alright,” Jason attempted to reassure her. “I've brought someone you met in...” He hesitated over his word choice and glanced over his shoulder at the captain.

Jason regretted his choice to bring Captain Ryan as he took him in. The captain was making no effort to appear unthreatening.

“The jungle,” Ryan retorted, using the monotone he almost always seemed to favour.

Jason gave him a heated look. “Could you attempt a friendlier voice,” he suggested through gritted teeth.

Jason turned back to the woman with a warm smile. “We'd like to help you,” he explained, “but we can't do that without knowing more about you.”

The woman drew her knees up against her chest and hugged them close. The gesture was obviously defensive.

Ryan swallowed down a sigh as he wished he was anywhere but here. This wasn't his role. He kept people safe with bullets, he did not deal with the emotional nonsense that followed.

“We found you at a pond,” he reminded her, “calling for a Kaden.”

The name was like a switch.

The woman's head shot up sharply as she fixed a wide stare on the captain. She dropped her knees and jumped up to her feet. She came forward so fast she jerked her arm free from the drip causing liquid to spray onto the floor.

Ryan stepped past the doctor instinctively as he readied for her approach.

The woman stopped just as suddenly as she moved and looked about her surroundings in confusion. “Gone...” she said hoarsely. “They're all gone.”

Jason's eyes widened. She was speaking English definitely but the accent was hard to place, London maybe but there was a trace of something else.

Ryan nodded sombrely, although he had no idea what she meant. “Is that what happened?” he queried. “Did you lose Kaden?”

She shook her head. “There was something in the water.” Confusion filled her green-grey stare again. “In the pond. Ponds?” She let out a frightened gasp. “Sss...sssnn....” She started to stammer and took a step back.

“Snake?” Ryan ventured a guess.

Her back slammed hard against the wall as she stepped into it. She grasped her head with both hands and shook it hard. “So big, so big, they don't get that big,” she protested. “It was a monster. Then...then...no, Kaden! Kaden! Kaden!” She started to wail the name as she continued to shake her head.

The woman dropped her hands from her head and looked at Ryan and the doctor dejectedly. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded. “Is this real?”

Ryan nodded again. “It's real,” he admitted. “I'm sorry,” he tacked on forcefully, thinking of the doctor's plea for him to be friendlier.

She dragged her back down slowly against the wall as she sat. Her knees were up again and she squeezed them tight. “It doesn't make sense.”

Ryan took a tentative step towards her. “I know but we can explain some of it,” he offered, “but you have to explain things too.”

“What can I explain?” she quipped wearily.

“What happened.”

“I don't know, we were in the pond, we should have been safe. Snakes like that don't live in Africa,” she let out a bitter laugh, “snakes like that don't live anywhere!”

“Africa?” Ryan queried in surprise.

She nodded. “Isn't that...” She trailed off and glanced from him to the doctor. “No, of course not, it doesn't make sense but none of it does. Where are we?”

The young woman glanced about her surroundings warily. “Am I allowed to know that?”

“The Home Office in London,” Ryan retorted.

Jason gave a small smile, surprised that the soldier was agreeable enough to let her know that information.

“What?” The disbelief was back in her eyes.

“Where did you come from?” Ryan quipped.

“Goue Vlaktes National Park in South Africa,” she explained. “I work there.”

The doctor's smile widened. Now they had something, it was information the others could key into their fancy computers and with their government access they could probably bring up staff members if she didn't give them a name.

She rubbed at her throat instinctively with her right hand. “I can still taste the water,” she murmured. “It was strange, it changed, everything changed.”

“Did the snake kill Kaden?” Ryan pried.

The woman's eyes started to burn with tears and she shook her head. “No, it killed everyone else, I think. I don't know,” she admitted. “Todd, there was so much blood and Phoebe,” she whimpered, “my little sister, it had her, it was squeezing her. Oh God is she dead? Have I lost them?”

The tears started to trickle down her cheeks and she hugged her knees so tightly her hands turned red with the effort.

“And Kaden?” Ryan stuck to the matter at hand, determined to keep her focused on it.

“There were lights in the water, they sucked us through. I thought we were dying too or hallucinating, lack of oxygen maybe. Then it was all different, we were still in the water, still in danger but it had all changed, it was a jungle.”

The woman looked up at Ryan in puzzlement. “Was I hallucinating? Am I still hallucinating?”

Ryan shook his head. “No.”

She gave a sad smile and dipped her head. “Shame,” she murmured. “Kaden pushed me out of the pond, he was meant to follow but then it came out of the darkness. It was another impossible thing, all teeth, it moved so fast. It just came up through the water without warning and Kaden was just gone.”

Ryan grimaced and thought of the gigantic crocodile they had encountered. He figured it was maybe the same type of creature but he couldn't know for sure.

“You've done very well,” Jason praised her. He came to stand beside Ryan and offered her a sympathetic stare.

“I haven't,” she murmured, “I haven't done well at all, my brother and sister are both dead.”

“That isn't your fault,” the doctor insisted.

“You weren't there,” she retorted heatedly.

“No, we weren't,” Ryan agreed, “but I was in that jungle, I saw the giant crocodile and the snakes. It wasn't your fault.”

“I just...I can't understand what happened,” she murmured.

She stared ahead at nothing with wide eyes and the captain and the doctor knew she wasn't even in the room anymore.

“I'm all alone,” she said sorrowfully.

Ryan glanced at the doctor. “I don't think I can do anymore,” he said awkwardly. His discomfort was clear in his blue stare.

The doctor nodded. “Maybe not at the moment. Miss, do you want to stay in this room for now?”

The woman pushed herself to her feet and fixed a serious stare on Ryan. “You had a gun,” she said flatly.

He nodded. “I still do, it's just being minded temporarily.”

“I want to stay with the man with the gun,” she remarked firmly.

“You're safe here you know,” the doctor said. “Not that you have to stay in this room,” he added hastily. “What I mean is, you're safe.”

“I was safe in the pond,” she retorted angrily. “It came out of nowhere. Do you understand? Out of nowhere!”

Ryan nodded agreeably. “I understand,” he replied in his blunt manner.

“Then you'll let me stay with someone who has a gun,” she insisted.

“I need a name first,” Ryan responded.

“Melina.”

Ryan raised his pale blonde eyebrows as he waited for the surname.

“I don't know you,” she reminded him. “And you have me in some basement prison.”

“It's not a prison,” Ryan answered defensively. “Anyway, you just said you wanted to go with me but you don't trust me?”

“I don't trust any of you and I don't want to go with you,” she said with a hint of irritation. “I want to go with whoever has a gun.”

Ryan turned and headed for the door. Melina followed pointedly along with the doctor.


	4. A Dating Error

Claudia stared at the screen with disbelief. Now this was unprecedented. She glanced to the administrator who had brought it up. “Are you sure this is right?” she queried.

He nodded before clicking the mouse to select another tab. “There's this story to go with it,” he explained.

Claudia looked at the grainy image of a scanned newspaper cover and paled slightly. She stepped back from the computer screen. “Thank you,” she murmured awkwardly.

Claudia headed briskly for Lester's office. She took the quickest route she knew, swiping her pass at coded doors in an automatic gesture, barely registering as they opened for her. Each corridor was bright thanks to ceiling to floor glass walls, which were tinted on the outside but allowed the full brightness of the day to enter. In summer any greenhouse styled effect was banished by the discreet air con system built into the ceiling.

Claudia reached Lester's domain within minutes and hurried in without a knock.

James Lester looked up at his subordinate with a disbelief that only increased when he realised just who had ignored protocol to disturb him.

“Claudia what is the meaning of this?” he demanded.

He was seated at his desk with a handful of papers before him, flustered from the latest phone call from his superiors. Lately stress seemed to be James' default mode. No one seemed to care that he hadn't exactly trained for prehistoric animals making random appearances in the modern world. All his bosses cared was that he kept it quiet and sorted it.

“Sir, it's about Goue Vlaktes, the National Park in South Africa,” Claudia began. “It closed down in nineteen-eighty-four.”

James' eyes went wide with surprise. He stood up from his desk briskly and stared at Claudia as if waiting for the punchline.

“It was after a group of visitors and a park worker went missing. There was a headline suggesting an animal attack but it said whilst their clothes and traces of blood were found in the area of a pond there were no bodies. Ultimately, it was left as an unsolved mystery with a variety of theories. The paper named them,” Claudia continued, “Melina Hollywell was the worker and two of the victims were her brother Kaden and sister Phoebe, the rest were friends.”

James frowned as he tried to gather his thoughts together. His mind was screaming that this was impossible but another tiny, stubborn voice argued that not only was it possible but in the world of anomalies it could make sense.

“She's not from our time,” Claudia murmured.

“No, it would seem not,” James retorted dryly.

Claudia felt pity for the woman as she wondered what the next decision would be. It was bad enough what the woman was trying to digest- monstrous snakes and crocodiles, the death of her family and friends, and portals that had transported her but to tell her that she was over two decades out of date as well seemed unimaginably cruel. Claudia knew they had been contemplating sending her home but what was home for her in this present time? More importantly, how could they risk sending her to people who might know her when she hadn't aged in twenty years?

“What are we going to do?” Claudia queried quietly.

James gazed over at Claudia with annoyance, wondering why she thought he would have an answer to this problem so suddenly. “Well tell her I suppose,” he muttered. “She'll figure it out soon enough.”

Claudia resisted giving her own frown as James' vagueness irritated her. James Lester was an enigma to Claudia, at times she disliked him but it was perhaps no more than the disdain most workers felt for their superior but at other times she admired his ability to handle a seemingly impossible job. She did not always agree with his decisions but nor did she envy him being the man who had to make them. Only Nick ever seemed to have a desire for some of Lester's authority and even that was limited to what Nick did, he certainly didn't want control of Lester's staff, he would just preferred they listened to him more now and again.

“Now?” she queried.

James nodded. “No time like the present,” he retorted dryly. He frowned at his pun and gave Claudia a stern stare, daring her to point it out.

Claudia just nodded, unwilling to stir James up over bad phrasing.

“Actually,” James said, “I'll come too.”

He placed his paperwork into a neat pile, taking care to pat and push it into alignment before he stood up. He made a show of glancing at his watch and back at the paperwork before gesturing to the door with one hand and an impatient glance.

Claudia led the way out, the subordinate until they started walking towards the basement, then they moved side by side to present a unity to the others. Claudia and James were both fans of the importance of presentation and knew it was better for them to appear on the same side. Of course Cluadia did permit her morals to sometimes have her oppose James but she tried to do so in diplomatic manner, presenting opposition as if they were merely trying to reason out both sides of an argument to come to a reasonable conclusion together. She could admit privately that sometimes Nick Cutter had her looking to her morals as well, he might not have the glib tongue of a government worker but he could be just as persuasive as one, sometimes more so.

When they entered the cool, darker quarters of the labs James was dismayed to find the tourists present. They were gathered together around a set of computer screens that Connor was seated and typing at, comparing theories and debating over what to search next as they studied a map of England with marked anomaly sites on it.

At the sound of footsteps, the group glanced over as one, Abby and Connor looked intrigued whilst Stephen was cool, offering up a neutral expression of calm. Nick's gaze was on Claudia, intense and bright as he offered a small glimpse of joy in it.

Claudia gave a small smile before trying to force some neutrality to her stare as she took in the others around Nick.

James searched the area, his head turning about impatiently as he hunted for the woman. Spying Dr O'Hare walking to the right he snapped to him, “doctor where's the patient?”

Jason, now used to James Lester's eternally brash, blunt manner that was usually coupled with a weary, woe is me, looked to him with a dull calm.

“She needed fluids and nourishment,” he retorted.

James' frown deepened as he glared at the man, waiting for him to continue.

The doctor smiled and gestured with the thumb of his left hand to a door just behind him and to the left. “She's in the tea room with Captain Ryan.”

“Still with the man with the gun,” Claudia murmured. She tried not to sound offended but she couldn't understand why anyone would willingly pick Ryan over her as a companion to find sanity in the mess of a world of anomalies. She was a listener and good with explanations, Ryan was blunt, a soldier not a nurse or a therapist, he wasn't going to want to cradle and reassure some traumatised young woman.

Jason's smile widened as he saw the annoyance in Claudia's brown gaze. He nodded.

“Yes, I suppose if I'd encountered a giant snake and crocodile that had devoured my family members I might be seeking out someone good with weapons too,” he reasoned sardonically.

Claudia stiffened slightly as her gaze darted over to Nick. The golden-copper haired man had been in the jungle too, surely he was more appealing than Captain Ryan, he had a friendlier attitude and was sympathetic and kind and good enough with a gun when he had the option of using one. Alright, it tended to be a tranquillizer gun in his case but still, for a university professor he was quite good when it came to defending his colleagues from primordial beasts.

“Let's tell her the news,” James remarked moodily.

James headed for the door the doctor had gestured to, accompanied by Claudia who was starting to think James delivering the news was not a good idea. She gave Nick a final fleeting glance prompting him to head over to them.

“Do you have some news?” Nick pried curiously.

James halted with a sigh and glanced over his shoulder at the man with a scornful stare. “It's private Cutter, the girl deserves to know before everyone else.”

Claudia glanced at James with mild surprise. She didn't think he had the compassion in him and agreed that the woman deserved to hear the news without an audience.

Claudia gave Nick an apologetic smile. “We'll tell you after,” she assured, “but James is right, we should deliver this news privately, it's only fair.”

Nick nodded as his irritated gaze softened quickly with Claudia's gaze. “Alright. Just remember she's already been through a lot in one day,” he cautioned.

James rolled his eyes at this before turning back to the door.

Claudia nodded before heading after James.

The tea room on the other side was small with four wide tables capable of fitting six people each. There were three vending machines- snacks, cold drinks, and pre-packaged refrigerated snacks, and a coffee and tea point with disposable cups, a milk jug and two tall cannisters of hot water. At one table in the middle Captain Ryan and Melina Hollywell sat opposite each other in silence.

Melina's sharp, grey-green eyes darted up at the noise of the door opening, wary as she took in Claudia and James. She sat with her arms folded, tense and uncomfortable as she watched them approach.

Captain Ryan didn't bother looking over, he recognised the sound of Claudia's heels on the tiles and the flat slap of James' expensive soles.

James and Claudia halted at the side of the table.

“Captain Ryan, could you give us a minute please?” James queried politely.

“No,” Melina protested sharply even as the blonde captain made to stand. She turned a hostile stare up to James. “If he goes I'm going, I don't trust this place or anything going on right now. I don't know that a giant snake isn't coming out of nowhere again,” she added as her eyes filled with a wild panic, “and I'm not sitting here like a duck waiting to find out, not without some kind of weapon.”

Ryan's lip curled up slightly in a small hint of a grin at this. He knew he should be offended at her referring to him as a weapon but he took it as a compliment. If she thought he could protect her from giant snakes appearing from nowhere then he was doing his job right.

“Right and when the captain's working day ends are you going to follow him home?” James sneered. He held up his palm to her and waved in a dismissive gesture. “Never mind. We have news for you and I think it would be better you hearing it in private but if you don't mind the captain here for it that's fine.”

Claudia, who had been looking at James with mild scorn when he sneered at the woman, glanced back to her inquisitively. She couldn't even begin to imagine what was going through Melina's mind, how did one process all this? She considered her own indoctrination to this world, summoned from her government post to James' office in the Home Office, excited as she contemplated a promotion. James had been practical with his explanation, pacing the room with his hands behind his back advising her curtly that proof would come first hand to her soon enough as he discussed animals of an antiquated nature and a curious, scientific matter involving the laws of time that they had to investigate. James had been vague, embarrassed that she would laugh in his face probably, and he had allowed her to face the proof when Nick, Abby, Stephen and Connor all did. Sure, Claudia had been given a slight advantage with newspaper articles and blurred photographs to ponder but nothing matched up to meeting a  Scutosaurus and almost getting devoured by a Gorgonopsid. After that, Claudia was committed to her new role.

Melina shrugged. “Go ahead, you're strangers to me the news isn't going to be personal.”

“Melina,” Claudia addressed her gently before James could snap, “what date is it?”

Melina gave the red haired woman an odd look and frowned. “That's an unusual question. I asked him about the wrappers.” She nodded to Ryan before gesturing to the vending machines. “They're all different, I mean it's been six months since I was in England but they can't all have changed so much.”  
“I don't know what they looked like to you before today,” Ryan retorted calmly. “And I can't say I study crisp packets or chocolate wrappers so if there has been a change, it wouldn't be on my radar.”

Claudia gave James a sideways glance, wondering if it was to their advantage that Melinda already had suspicions. “So what date is it?” she repeated.

“It should be the seventeenth of August, nineteen-eight-four,” Melina answered carefully as she cocked her head slightly at Claudia, her voice full of doubt and suspicion.

Claudia's brown gaze filled with sympathy as she recognised the date as the date given in the newspaper of the grisly disappearances that had led to  Goue Vlaktes being permanently closed just a week later.

“It's the twenty-second of September, two thousand and seven,” Claudia explained, taking care to emphasise the year.

Melina was silent as she kept her eyes on Claudia but her gaze became unfocused.

“Do you understand?” James queried rudely.

“I...I missed the millennium,” Melina said dumbly, “I...” She shook her head. “But it's not possible.” She looked at the pair in puzzlement and pointed down to the table with one finger. “This is the future?”

“It's our present,” James corrected.

“Same difference surely,” she retaliated hotly. “No.” She shook her head again. “No, it's not right. There was a jungle and now here, none of this is right. What the hell are you trying to say happened or is happening? I've travelled through the time?”

“You came through an anomaly,” Claudia attempted to explain. “It's a portal that opens up to different times and places.”

Melina just continued to shake her head. “None of this makes sense,” she said quietly. “It was those lights you mean, under the water.” She glanced across the table to Ryan this time. “Is that where that thing came from? Did it travel too?”

Ryan nodded. “An anomaly must have opened where you and your friends were, the snake came out and you and your brother went in.”

Tears budded at Melina's eyes at the mention of Kaden. “Then you all came through one from here to the same place?” she queried.

Tom nodded. “Yes, and we brought you back through.”

“So, can I go back?” she quipped hopefully.

“The anomalies only stay open for so long,” Ryan answered carefully.

“We are still studying them,” Claudia interjected a little more hopefully.

“Studying them,” Melina repeated slowly. She glanced up to her with a frown. “This isn't odd in this time?”

“Oh it is,” James chimed in bitterly, “believe me. Only a few select people are meant to know about it.”

James' frown let Melina know that she wasn't meant to be one of those people.

“Are there others like me?” Melina queried.

“No, you're the first,” James retorted, he added bitingly, “and hopefully the last.”

“And they say it's good to be first,” Melina grumbled as she sagged back against her chair, “well I'm not feeling good.”

Melina's gaze fell on the table once more. “Thirty-three years,” she murmured weakly. “Then...my parents, they might not even...” She paused as pain filled her gaze. “What have they gone through, all their children...am I marked as dead somewhere? This isn't right!” she cried out suddenly.

Claudia tensed at the shouting in surprise.

“Surely it can be fixed,” Melina complained, “surely I can go back through one of these things. Maybe, if it's time travelling, just before it happened.”

She pushed her hands up through her dark hair and shook her head yet again. “It doesn't seem real but I don't think my worst nightmares could have imagined this. I didn't want to go swimming, I should have said something, done something. This can't be inevitable, not if there's time travel.”

“It doesn't work that way,” Ryan warned as he guessed at her thoughts. “The portals open to prehistoric times but one appearing in your time suggests they're not as new as we think, maybe they've always been around, a window to the past.”

“Well I want one to my past damn it!” Melina snapped at him with a glower. “I don't understand, you say this happens here, why can't it be that way?”

Ryan frowned. He didn't really have an answer and was surprised by the time she seemed to have come from. To him the anomalies appeared in this time only with a link to a time older than ancient, he had never imagined under right now that the anomalies had appeared throughout time to other humans giving them the same wondrous and dangerous link to a time of reptilian mammals, dinosaurs and creatures so old their buried remains still hadn't been discovered yet. He did not believe there was any other way to it, that a portal might open up giving them a glimpse of the Victorians or the Romans or the Vikings, no it was the pre-man past always as far as Ryan had reasoned.

“It just can't,” he answered bluntly.

He realised he was wrong, in the Permian landscape, in a time long before man there had been signs of humanity- a camera, an abandoned lunch box and a skeleton. Cutter's wife had been on the camera but she couldn't or wouldn't explain. It had all unnerved Ryan though he would never admit it, it had just felt wrong. Time meddling, that's what it was and another reason why civilians shouldn't be involved in this.

“You're lying,” Melina hissed back at him with a glower.

“Look,” James interrupted in a pragmatic tone, “right now we have no knowledge of an anomaly that would take you home. You're out of time and I have to ask, what are we going to do with you?”


	5. A Modern Living Arrangement

Claudia Brown observed her new housemate warily. When she had voiced an agreement with Cutter that Melina couldn't be kept at the Home Office indefinitely this wasn't exactly what she had in mind. They were over a week into their new lifestyle and neither woman appeared to be any closer to adjusting to it.

Melina Hollywell sat at the kitchen table with a collection of books open before her. They ranged in topic from animals past and present and were on loan from the university via Stephen and Nick. Melina had settled for the familiar topic of studying predators, intrigued to discover what new things had been learned since her time about the animals she had looked after in the nature reserve. She was stubbornly resistant to using a computer, which was to Claudia's relief as she wasn't quite willing to trust the safety of her laptop to the outdated woman.

Claudia clasped her hands together and fixed on her friendliest smile for the woman. She had just returned from another busy day of classified government business eager for some respite but she was starting to realise that with another form of classified government business living in her home there was no respite.

“How was your day?” Claudia quipped politely.

A walkman rested near the books, the headphones attached to it rested on Melina's shoulders behind her head, pushed down abruptly when she had sensed the door being opened. There was no music playing as she had hit pause and Claudia couldn't venture a guess as to what tape was within. The walkman was a gift from retro lover Connor although he had some angst about what tapes he was willing to part with and his recommendations had been of bands Melina hadn't heard of.

“As fun filled as the last,” Melina retorted sardonically as she fixed her grey-green stare on the older woman.

Claudia's smile wavered a little as she relaxed her hands by her sides. “Well, they can't all be good days.”

“I need to be doing something,” Melina retorted stubbornly. “Like learning more about these time portal things.”

“Anomalies,” Claudia corrected, “and they're classified.”

“To someone who travelled through them?” Melina retaliated heatedly. She tugged off the headphones and stood up, pausing to smooth down the pink and black plaid shirt Abby had gifted her with.

The peppy blonde had come round on the second day, after persuading Claudia to share her address, with a small offering of clothes for Melina along with a spare hairdryer. Claudia had gone shopping as well, returning with sanitaries, soaps, sponges, another toothbrush and some much needed food to share. Whilst grateful, Melina was bitter, evidently unhappy to be so dependent in this world.

“Look, I can't stay here forever but I can't exactly go seek out normality either, can I?” Melina remarked moodily. “How I can forget what happened? More importantly, how can I forget that there might be a portal to take me home? Maybe even one that will take me to before it,” she added hopefully.

Claudia's brown stare became sympathetic as she nodded. She knew the issue of what Melina would or could do was going to be raised but she had hoped for at least another week to consider it.

“You can't tell me it's government personnel only, I've already worked out Abby and Connor are definitely not government,” Melina said. “In fact,” she added as her gaze became serious, “yesterday Abby told me she used to work in a zoo in the reptiles' department. She said she got into this because she was asked to identify a lizard that turned out to be from the past.”

Claudia tensed just a little, guessing at where this had to be leading.

“I worked in a safari park with multiple predators, I've as much experience as Abby, maybe more,” she shrugged, “I don't know how long she worked at her zoo for and I've dealt with several creatures from the past. Hell, I've been to the past.”

“Melina, it's not that simple,” Claudia began a protest.

“Well make it simple, I already know about the portals-”

“Anomalies,” Claudia corrected again. She didn't know why she was so adamant about the terminology, given the anomalies probably went by many different names depending on whom they appeared to but Nick had called them that and everyone had agreed it was suitable and Claudia wasn't willing for it to change.

“Anomalies,” Melina retorted pointedly with another irate look for the redheaded woman. “I know about them and I'm going to chase after them until I find the one that takes me home, it would be easier for me to do that with your help but I will do it without.”

“Melina, there is no guarantee that anomaly exists anymore,” Claudia tried to reason with her, “and if it does, it appeared as a link between your time and location, and Colombia almost sixty million years ago, so there is no guarantee it will ever appear in this time.”

Melina frowned. “The way Connor and Abby talk I don't think you're running entirely blind on this. I mean it's a government organisation, you must have learned things about these anomalies.”

Claudia frowned too as she told herself mentally to have a chat with Connor and Abby about classified information. “Alright,” she murmured, a little too tired for an argument, “I'll talk to Lester, he's the boss. Now, how about we have dinner?”

“Sure.”

Melina tidied up her books, shifting them into a pile before carrying them from the room to the spare room that Claudia had offered her. Once they were abandoned to the desk in there, she returned to the kitchen to help with the dinner.

Melina was a much better cook than Claudia, which wasn't hard as Claudia was too busy with work to be engaged with cooking. Claudia preferred to opt for fast made salads or catering, even going so far as to have a local deli prepare her lunch most days. Melina was horrified to learn this, insisting that home cooked meals were the best and always worth making the time for. She had talked briefly about her mother's love for cooking before clamming up and frowning.

Claudia knew it was difficult for Melina and that she couldn't imagine herself in the woman's position. She knew Melina was playing host to a conflict of heated emotions- shock, rage, disbelief, grief and guilt were all waging war within her and she still didn't seem ready to release any of them or welcome any positive ones save for that very faint flicker of hope she tried to keep going whenever the anomalies were mentioned. Claudia didn't know what else Melina should hope for but she did wish there was something else for the woman to focus on.

Claudia attempted to be useful as it was her kitchen. She got the utensils, set the table and hunted out ingredients as instructed. In the end she had to stand back and let Melina take over as there was little else to busy herself with in an attempt to seem helpful. It was funny but despite being Claudia's kitchen, Melina easily seemed more at home in it. Although, Claudia did have a small living room in her flat with a decent window view of the city outside it, Melina still brought the books and walkman to the kitchen table for studying.

As the room filled with steams full of wonderful senses, Claudia felt some of the stress of her busy day slip away. In the welcome warmth of the kitchen it was suddenly easy to forget the drama of trying to hide the existence of the suitably nicknamed 'terror pigs' from the world and cover up the two known fatalities they had caused. Worse was hearing Lester grumble about the financial cost and press cover-up as if the lives lost were of little value in comparison. Claudia understood that Lester was a businessman by nature and head of the organisation because he had the ability to channel his emotions and she appreciated that despite his crabby nature he did possess some sort of morals but it was still trying to hear him mutter about 'the mess to be cleaned' in reference to the deceased.

When the cooking was done and the food served, the silence of the room suddenly became palpable. The women sat opposite each other, busying themselves with eating home-cooked chicken stir fry served with boiled rice.

“It's delicious,” Claudia said sincerely as much to break the silence between them as to offer her praise.

“It's simple,” Melina murmured, “but thanks,” she added on.

Claudia dipped her head back to her dish. She understood Melina's complication of emotions, her situation was horrible but it was still difficult to deal with the young woman's moments of moodiness each night.

The silence resumed until the meal was finished.

Claudia immediately stood up with her dish and reached for Melina's. She had made it clear that if Melina insisted on cooking she would do the cleaning.

Melina pushed back her seat and stood up calmly. “I'm going for a walk,” she announced.

Claudia turned to face her with the plates still clutched in her hands. “Melina,” she began a protest.

Melina held up her left hand slightly as she gave Claudia a weary look. “If I just go straight and then back again I can't get lost, can I?” she quipped sardonically. Melina's gaze turned sad as she gazed at Claudia. “Look I used to go for a run at least twice a day, I miss that and I need it. I'm going a little crazy without fresh air.”

“Well it's not all that fresh in the city,” Claudia countered, “especially compared to a nature reserve in South Africa.”

Claudia turned a glance to the round, wooden framed clock she had hanging just above the door. It was coming up to seven o'clock and the sun had set.

“It's dark outside,” Claudia attempted a new tactic.

Melina smirked at this. “In London? I know it's been a while but it can't have changed that much,” she jested.

Claudia was surprised by the show of humour as it came without bitterness. She gave a small smile in return. “Alright, maybe not but it's certainly no safer,” she said sternly.

“I know how to take precautions,” Melina retorted, “it can't be any riskier than evading hyenas after sundown.”

Claudia raised her eyebrows slightly at this as she pondered over whether the woman was joking or not. “Um why were you walking in the wilds of Africa at night?” she pried quietly.

Melina's smirk widened into an amused smile. “It wasn't casual strolling. Things would happen in the reserve, you'd have to do perimeter checks, might be warnings of poachers or one of the animals in danger, baby wild dog stuck in a pit was one reason.”

“Oh, I see.”

“So anyway, I won't be long and I won't go far but I need out.”

Claudia nodded. “Alright but take a coat,” she advised, “the wonderful British weather hasn't changed any.”

“Glad to hear some things never change.”

Melina headed from the kitchen, halting at the coat hooks by the door. She plucked down a black trench coat, put it on and headed out the front door. She walked down a brightly lit, plain hallway and down several sets of stairs, counting each floor as she descended.

Outside it was a grim, cold September evening. The clouds and smog had rolled in to hide the sky from view and the air had a biting nip carried in it with each blow of the breeze. The roads were thriving with traffic and a few pedestrians bypassed the young woman who standing looking about curiously.

Melina stepped to the edge of the pavement, looked both ways carefully and hurried to the centre island before checking the road and crossing again.

\---

It was half eight when Claudia knew something had to be wrong. She figured an hour was enough to clear one's head and surely Melina would know Claudia would only worry if she was gone for any longer than that. Claudia checked the stairwell and the apartment block lobby first, just in case the woman had maybe become confused over the floor level. Seeing no trace of her, Claudia had taken a quick dash outside and winced at the damp, cool air of a London autumn night. Rain was coming and if the heavy clouds overhead were any indication it would be soon. Claudia glanced about the streets but saw no trace.

Desperate, Claudia returned to her apartment. She knew there was no sense in running up and down the London pavements aimlessly, it would only be a waste of time and a potential risk to her own person. Her neighbourhood was affable enough but it was still in the city so crime was unavoidable.

Swallowing down her pride but not her fear of reprimanding, Claudia lifted up her phone in the kitchen and dialled Nick Cutter's home number. She felt a thrill of relief when he answered on the third ring.

“Professor Cutter.”

“Nick, it's Claudia,” she retorted quickly. “Melina's gone.”

“Gone? What do you mean gone?” Nick answered in confusion.

“She went for a walk around seven and hasn't come back.”

“And you let her?” Nick queried incredulously. “You live in London it's not exactly easy to navigate.”

“Well she's not a prisoner!” Claudia retorted irately. “Look Nick, I am not exactly sure what to do here. Maybe she's lost, maybe she's just taking longer than expected,” she rambled as she pushed a hand up through her strawberry blonde hair, “or maybe she's run away.”

“She's not a teenager,” Nick chided.

“I didn't mean it like that,” Claudia replied as she frowned and let her hand fall slack by her side. She cradled the phone closer. “She's fed up in the house and wants in on what we do.”

“Well can you blame her?” Nick queried calmly.

“No but it's for the wrong reasons, she thinks she'll find an anomaly to take her back and we all know the odds of that happening aren't high.”  
“No but maybe teaching her that involves showing her it, you can't expect her to understand the anomalies without seeing more of them. We've worked with them for a few months now and we're still only scratching the surface.”

Claudia sighed. “Alright, well I'll talk to Lester but firstly I need to find her. What if she's in danger Nick? London isn't the safest at night.”

“Well look it'll take me a couple of hours to get down there, you need someone closer,” Nick advised. “Call Captain Ryan, he'll have the skills to track her too.”

Claudia sighed. “I was hoping to avoid giving the Home Office a heads up.”

“Not wanting a telling off from someone?” Nick queried teasingly.

Claudia frowned as she sensed his smile. “Well I've seen from all of you that it can be unpleasant.”

“Well maybe Ryan won't tell on you. Give him a call. I'll make my way to your house in the meantime but hopefully by the time I get there it won't be necessary.”

Claudia wanted to argue against it and tell Nick that he didn't need to come but she couldn't. She wanted him here, just in case she told herself, ignoring the little voice that suggested it was more than simply wanting help with Melina. “Alright, thanks Nick.”

Claudia ended the call and hung up the phone. She hurried over to her handbag, which was hanging over the dining table chair, and hunted her work mobile out from it. With reluctance, she found the captain's work number and dialled it.

Claudia realised she had no idea what Captain Ryan's personal number was on the off chance he didn't answer nor did she know where he lived. Sure his address was probably on record somewhere but there was no need for her to know it. What if he wasn't close like Nick assumed?

The rings stopped after four and the captain answered with a calm, “evening.”

“Evening Captain Ryan, it's Claudia-”

“I know,” he interrupted, still calm with a slight sardonic edge, “caller I.D.”

“Right,” Claudia's tone became irate, “captain I need your help with something urgently.”

“Something,” he repeated dryly.

Claudia knew he was mocking her on some level, probably guessing why she had called. If it was about an anomaly or creature she would have said so and he knew it.

“Alright, someone,” she corrected moodily. “Melina. Look, she left my house to go for a walk around seven and I haven't seen her since,” she admitted in an aloof tone, trying to sound annoyed by the ordeal rather than concerned. “She's probably just gotten disoriented somewhere. Could you come and well, track her?” She opted to use Nick's terminology.

Ryan let out a soft snicker, surprising and irritating Claudia with his show of humour. “She's not a deer but I'll try. I'll be in the area in about half an hour, ring me if she shows up before that.”

“Wait, don't you need my address?”

“I already have it.”

The line went dead as Claudia wondered what else the captain might know about her that she wasn't aware of.

–

Melina tensed on the damp park bench she was seated on. She had been hearing a variety of noises since she had sneaked into the park- leaves rustling in the wind, bats squeaking, branches cracking under the feet of urban foxes and the odd rustle of feathers and branches as an owl took off into the sky. Every sound she had managed to identify so far. She was wary of each one, fearful of other trespassers or worse, some unimagined monster breaking the laws of probability and time.

The sight of the park's pond had terrified her in an unexpected manner, turning her momentarily to statue like stillness as she had gazed at its still, reflective surface and wondered what might be hiding below it. She had scurried from it soon after, banishing it from sight and opting to sit on a bench by a path with a plain stretch of grass behind it. The grass blades were short but still she was wary of the unseen that might come slithering through it because it was dark and the shadows of the rain clouds were enough to provide cover for many things.

Melina wondered what made her tense now as she listened to the night. There were engines rumbling, exhaust pipes choking out pollution to the already smog filled sky and horns honking as a reminder than the nature here was an illusion and the world of man dominated. She felt a tingle on the back of her neck as the soft hairs there stood upright. Something was watching her.

Melina turned quickly, right hand up and knife bared, ready to defend herself. Her eyes widened in surprise as a hand grabbed at hers and took her wrist in a tight grasp before the knife could do any damage.

Her grey-green eyes locked upon her potential assailant as she prepared to throw out a wild punch with her free hand before realising she recognised them. It was difficult taking in the person's features in the darkness as the park lights were cheap, tall and spread out so their small bulbs could barely cover much.

“Do you always stroll through parks like a ninja?” she snapped.

Tom Ryan frowned down at the young woman before retorting, “do you always break into them?”

“Sometimes,” she confessed with a small smile, “depends on the height of the fence.”

“And does Claudia know you have her kitchenware with you?” he quipped dryly as he nodded to the knife in the hand he still restrained.

“Claudia's kitchen is a foreign land to her,” Melina retorted mockingly, “I've had this for days.”

“For what?” Ryan queried dubiously.

Melina frowned at him. “Really?” she snapped sardonically. “For serpents that come out of God damn nowhere that's what,” she explained hotly.

Ryan released her hand. “If I'm quick enough to stop it, you can be sure the serpent is.”

“Well no one will give me a gun,” she grumbled.

Melina lowered her hand and pocketed the knife again before turning a curious stare up to the captain. “Well go on then, how did you find me? Did I leave tracks?”

“No, why does everyone keep assuming I'm a hunter?” Ryan complained. “I'm an army captain.”

Melina shrugged. “And that never involved hunting? Not even enemy soldiers?”

Ryan frowned. “It's not the same thing,” he muttered.

“Have you been in a war?”

“The Gulf War.”

Melina looked confused at this. “Haven't heard of that one.”

“You were about six years shy of it.”

“Oh, huh, how many wars have I missed?” She frowned and held up a hand before he could respond. “Actually, don't answer, I don't want to know, not really. How old are you?” she pried.

Ryan cracked a small smile at this as he folded his arms. “How old do you think?”

“I'm not sure,” she said quietly. “I've been thinking about that.”

Ryan raised his pale blonde eyebrows slightly at this. “You've been thinking about my age?” he quipped dryly.

Melina gave him a scolding stare before she shook her head. “No, mine. I should be forty-nine, almost fifty, damn isn't that scary. Should I be older than you?”

Ryan's frown was back, he didn't like the hypothetical conversation, it was out of his comfort zone and more Nick's area, Ryan just took things as they were not as they could or might be. “You're not older than me,” he said flatly. “You're twenty-six.”

“You can do maths,” she teased. Melina attempted a smile but it vanished swiftly. “Sorry, I'm just teasing because it's stopping me from freaking out.”

Melina leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees and raising her hands so she could lean her head into her palms.

“I passed a payphone and I thought about calling my parents, I wondered if they'd still have the same number then I wondered if they're even alive anymore. If they are they're in their seventies, when I last saw them...” She shook her head. “My dad was a professor,” she explained. She glanced up to Ryan again and gave another smile. “He taught Physics, he wasn't thrilled that I opted for animals as my interest and mum ran stables. They worked all the time but they really loved us, they made a point of us having a family holiday every year and meeting at their house for Christmas. I mean, they lost all of us, not even just one child, all of us and I can't even imagine what they thought happened to us.”

Melina fell silent as she pushed her fingertips through her dark hair before placing her palms flat on her thighs. “I guess I wondered if they would appreciate hearing my voice or if they have let me go. They've had this screwed up mystery to deal with for twenty-three years but I've only had a few weeks to try and process it and maybe they deserve answers but maybe having me show up at twenty-six years of age and not forty-nine, well maybe that would be worse.”

Melina looked to Ryan again and offered him another smile. “You know you don't look like a soldier tonight but you're still acting like one, do you ever come off duty?”

A brief moment of confusion flitted through the captain's blue eyes before he banished it. Melina was right, he didn't look like a soldier tonight, he was out of uniform and dressed in jeans, a plain, green shirt, a black, leather jacket, and black boots. He hadn't thought about his attire, it was generally based around practicality not style and he had been in a rush tonight. Even when he wasn't working he had to always consider the possibility of getting called in, it wasn't like the anomalies operated on a nine to five basis.

“It's not an act,” he retorted, “and I'm not sure what you mean.”

Melina waved her right hand up and down at him. “Come on, stoic, silent soldier, it's almost a cliché. You've nothing to comment on what I'm saying because that's getting personal and you tracked me down like a good professional, well not tracked, located me. How did you find me again?” she pried.

“I was considering that you worked and lived at a safari park and would maybe be seeking somewhere quiet nearby that was close to nature and not that much changed from your time,” Ryan replied calmly.

Melina's eyes widened slightly. “Damn, you are good. I mean, I kind of liked the idea of swings too,” she shrugged, “but there was no one to give me a push so I had to let that go.” Melina stood up from the bench at last and brushed her hands down her jeans as if she could banish the dampness picked up from the bench. “Swings haven't changed too much, have they?” she queried.

“You mean you didn't even go and look?”

Melina frowned and rubbed at the bottom of her nose. “I saw the pond and didn't really want to keep exploring after that.”

“Well they're still same. Look, it's going to pour down, you can always ask Claudia to take you tomorrow.”

Melina chuckled at this. “Right, I can't even tell if you're joking or not but I'm sure she'd be thrilled, take the twenty plus unwanted house guest to the park for the day. Anything to keep me from the time portal thingies.”

Melina folded her arms as she stared up at the blonde with a serious gaze. “I didn't ask for this and I sure as hell don't want it but it's happened and you government guys aren't going to offload me from it somehow, that's not fair and you already have civilians working for you so what's one more? I have a similar background to Abby, I've gathered that much.”

“I'm not in favour of the civilians we do have,” Ryan replied flatly.

“Well tough, what else do you expect me do? Just forget I travelled through time zones and had my life destroyed by some prehistoric snake?”

“Well I'm not the boss.”

“Well good because you're opposed.”

Ryan cracked a small smile at this. “The boss is Lester, you've met him, think he'll be for it?”

Melina smiled as well. “No but he'll be easier to wear down.”

Ryan shook his head. “Can I get you back to Claudia now?”

“If you have to.”

Ryan gestured for Melina to start walking along the path. He headed up it alongside her before pausing as they came to a fork in it and Melina continued forward.

“Just a sec, we can go left,” Ryan advised.

Melina glanced at him quizzically. “Okay, I know I'm not familiar with this area but I remember coming this way.” She gestured up to a decaying oak tree. “I remember thinking this guy looked a little freaky.”

Ryan looked over to the tree in question. It was tall with many lengthy, spindly branches, sparse with leaves as an unexpected chill had snatched many of them away leaving to them to decay on the damp grass below. It did indeed cast a spectral silhouette in the night with the way some of its branches twisted and jutted at odd angles.

“We can still go this way,” Ryan said as he gestured to the left path.

“Fine but if you're planning to bump me off because I know too much can I be buried where they will be flowers in spring? Oh, sunflowers would be good if this park has them,” Melina enthused as she started following the path leading to the left.

Ryan shook his head wearily. “If that was something we did you'd be dead already. Anyway, who would believe you if you talked?”

Melina sighed as she kept walking. “Just whack jobs. Do you still have them in this time? Conspiracy theory nuts?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, just a sec, are these time portal things responsible for any?” Melina halted and looked at Ryan with intrigue. “Is Nessie real?” she marvelled.

“I suppose it's possible,” Ryan admitted, “but my money is still on an overgrown fish exploited for tourist cash.”

“Hmm, considering the alternatives maybe that would be better.” She frowned and turned back to the path ahead.

Melina's eyes widened as she saw the play park coming into view at the end of the path, bordered by low cut hedges and a small, wooden gate. There was a set of swings, a single tyre swing, a roundabout, a rope structure to climb, and a set of ladders and slides.

She halted and glanced over her shoulder curiously to the solider.

“I am off duty,” he said, “although I'm not giving you a push.” Ryan looked up to the skies. “It's going to start raining soon, we're going as soon as it does.”

Melina laughed. “I mean I was joking but since it's not every day some soldier from a secret organisation takes me to a play park in the future I suppose I must.”

Melina headed forward, curious to see if the play parks had changed much since her time. She saw that they came with padded ground and soft sand and the swings seemed a little safer with soft, rubber seats instead of the wood and metal she remembered. She figured what the hell as she headed for a swing and occupied it. It was completely daft but her life had fallen so far into crazy she didn't really think there was much sanity to salvage in it.

Ryan watched quietly as the young woman made a half-hearted effort to swing. He figured from the frown that plucked at her lips that she was probably thinking of a time in a park with her siblings. In this time they had been dead for decades but to Melina it was only a few weeks and the wound was very raw. He only hoped she would start to realise how final it was and that this wasn't the future but her new present whether she liked it or not.


	6. A Day in the Country

The sun was out heating the air gently to a pleasant temperature and casting a pleasing golden tinged light upon the land. The evidence that people had noticed the pleasing change in the weather was in the attire of those lucky enough not to be on their way to an office or a job that required a uniform. Although it wasn't as hot as a summer's day a few men and women had opted to show some skin via long, loose fitted vest tops or the daring pair of shorts that many Brits were infamous for wearing the moment a slight beam of sunlight dared to grace a country infamous for its grey, damp weather.

As the day was so divinely pleasing Claudia Brown was certain it could only go wrong. She was one of the unfortunate dressed for work rather than enjoyment, ready for the summons to trouble as she dared to take a coffee break with a somewhat reluctant companion in the form of Melina Hollywell.

Melina was becoming despondent as time trickled by, unsettled and fidgety she continued to pester Claudia for access to the anomalies and wondered what else she could do in a foreign time if not pursue the past. Claudia was attempting to press the matter with her superior James Lester knowing to ask him outright would only gain a firm no and that it was better to attempt to wear him down gently with the concept of Melina joining them. The young woman had no identity, no passport or papers just the name and date of birth of a woman who had been removed from society as dead. In this day and age without proof of identity it was a little difficult for someone to find a life for themselves, not impossible but difficult, one needed a history of experience for a job, proof of reference, a demonstration that you had a blueprint in the world. Without this Melina couldn't exactly up and leave to get a job or accommodation, not without running into restrictions and red tape.

Melina and Claudia sat outside a small coffee shop that could be mistaken for quaint and homely by the unknowing but to the local Londoner it was obviously a couture café of over priced drinks and snacks, each with a name more elaborate than the last and designed ingredients to put shame to the humble tea and scone.

Claudia was in a pale grey suit, pink shirt and brown pumps, not quite designer but an expensive enough attire that there were no raised eyebrows when she occupied the white painted, iron wrought table outside the café. She was evidently at first glance a beautiful businesswoman but a second stare to her dark eyes made it clear that she was a powerful one too, a woman in charge not servitude.

Melina by comparison was in an oversized, beige khaki shirt reminiscent of the eighties she missed coupled with a tan, brass buckled belt about the waist, a pair of skinny, green khaki trousers and brown boots. Melina looked too much the safari worker she was to get away with being viewed as donning an urban safari style, and her clothes were too plain and unmarked with the fitted cut that suggested designer for anyone to think she was perhaps attempting a vintage or retro look. She'd found the clothes in some charity shop bargain bin when out with Abby, too embarrassed by having to use Claudia's money for clothes to consider getting herself anything better. Although Claudia suspected that even with her own cash the woman might still have opted for practicality over style. You could take the girl out of the wild but you couldn't take the wild out of the girl.

As she sipped over an overdressed latte that justified an astronomical cost by having honey from some high end hive drizzled over it, Claudia contemplated that she and Melina were both dressed for disaster in a different way. Each of them was waiting and anticipating a call for an anomaly, Claudia ready to rush into the Home Office and Melina ready to rush through invading ancient beasts to seek out a portal of lights that might take her home.

Melina ate her gold flaked brownie with mild enjoyment darting through her grey-green gaze. It had been almost a month now since she had become Claudia's odd housemate and it was clear she was reaching the end of her patience for what she felt was a life of limbo. She spent her time continuing to read books, venturing to Nick and Stephen's university quarters at the Central Metropolitan University to sharpen up her knowledge of prehistoric creatures, went on runs with Stephen the odd time, visited local libraries with Connor, and attempted to learn about the current world with Connor and Abby both. Abby proved the more reliable instructor as Connor was more interested in treating Melina to zany sights just to view her reaction to them although he was also happy to take her to retro arcades in the mall to give her a sense of nostalgia. The latter failed as Melina had never spent anytime in arcades but she had appreciated the gesture and found a delight in air hockey.

Claudia hoped that all the young woman's bonding with the odd assortment of employees for the Home Officer's top secret and wonderfully odd work of anomaly related events would result in two things. One- Lester taking Melina on board as a new member to the group and two- Melina finding a new life for herself in this time.

Claudia's phone chimed from within her white handbag prompting both women to tense slightly. Claudia fumbled with the clasp of the bag, which was perched on the seat between them, and tugged out the mobile quickly. She saw H.O H.Q in black font and flipped it open.

“Hello James,” she greeted politely.

“Claudia, possible signs of an anomaly,” James Lester's slightly bored voice retorted. “You know what to do. A farmer in Hambleden talking quite excitedly about unusual horses.”

“Unusual horses sir?” Claudia repeated back dubiously. The sceptic in her considered a mislabelled zebra escaped from a nearby zoo or something less prehistoric and equally mundane.

“That's right, short and skittish with an odd bray, he thinks it's a rare species, you'll probably find it's a pair of donkeys,” James commented dryly. “Still, we can't afford to take a chance now, can we?”

“No sir.”

Claudia glanced across the table at Melina who wasn't even trying to conceal the fact that she was eavesdropping. “Sir, considering this may be a false alarm and even if it's not, we're unlikely to find much threat from horses, may I bring Melina? It is a lovely day for a trip to the country after all.”

Claudia smiled as she saw Melina's gaze instantly brighten.

“Hmm, more tourists is not what we need,” James complained.

“I'll take full responsibility sir.”

James sighed. “Very well then, just get on with it.”

“Thank you sir.”

The line went dead and Claudia closed the phone. “Well, fancy some horse hunting?”

Melina raised her dark eyebrows in slight confusion even as a smile slipped out. “I'm sure that means something other than what it sounds like but if it's related to your work then sure.”

Claudia nodded as she opened the phone again and prepared to make another call. It was time to get the team together again.

\---

Farmer Jake Rostrevor was not the ill-knowledgable countryman Claudia was hoping for. He had been instantly suspicious of her arrival and unwilling to help with locating the horses until she started talking money. Claudia had attempted the usual subtle government bully stance at first, something about the need to preserve possibly endangered species but Jake wasn't impressed nor was he fooled but the laugh and the roll of the shoulders that went with it as Claudia attempted to suggest it was just some lost zebra needing rounded up.

There was no nearby zoo and Jake had scoffed the idea of a circus in town without his knowledge. Jake had also wanted to know how Claudia and her companions even knew about the horses since Jake had only made one phone call about it to a friend that bred and showed horses and were the government perhaps tapping phones after all? Claudia couldn't laugh that one off, Jake didn't ask it like a conspiracy nut, he had been calm but cool with his accusation, his firm stare unwavering as Claudia had offered up her practised smile of emptiness before shaking her head and commenting that the government had better things to do.

All while Claudia attempted to negotiate and haggle for knowledge, the rest of the group headed out to investigate, unconcerned with Jake's murmurings of land rights and trespassing.

It was Connor and Melina who found them first, following the soft sound of unusual braying to a thicket of oak, and horse chestnut trees clustered with smaller saplings. The air here was purer than the city, fresh and tinged with the ripening fruits of autumn. Conkers spilled out of a few broken green shells on the grass whilst acorns burnished from green to gold and hung heavy from the oak branches almost ready to join the conkers and signal the start of harvest.

Side by side, Connor and Melina crept forward to a gap in the trees bordered by a small rising hedge of spiked branches and dying leaves. Connor was conscious of the young woman beside him, intrigued by her simply because she came from another time. To Connor it was _The Time Machine_ almost to life except Melina was from the past not the future, so perhaps more like the inaccurate jungle girls of the wildly deviated versions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's _The Lost World_ except that wasn't quite right either because whilst Melina had been found in a primordial jungle her origin had been England of the eighties. 

Melina barely swallowed her gasp of surprise as she finally caught sight of the creatures that had brought them here. With their appearance she had a familiar ache of the plains of Africa as she looked at animals that belonged better on a savannah rather than the wilting grass of England in autumn. There were three in total, short and stocky their build was more akin to a zebra's than a standard horse's. They were a beautiful golden-brown to blend into the plains they had strayed from with a faded hint of stripes at their legs as if some Creator had started to paint them and abandoned the idea.

“Wow,” Connor marvelled in a whisper, “modern man meet early horse. They're what the cavemen played buccaneer on.”

Melina gave a small smile at this and a slight shake of her head. She was getting used to Connor's humour and was unsurprised that he would simplify such a miraculous moment in this manner.

“What are they called?” she queried quietly. She knew from her experience with zebras how honed the prey animals were to noise, always alert for predators and ready to sprint at the first hint of something unusual. These three were already wired for danger, snorting, stamping and braying uneasily as they found everything here unfamiliar.

“Hagerman Horse, I think,” Connor speculated. “I mean I've never seen an ancient horse before and there were a few.”

Melina nodded as she continued to stare at the animals in awe. There was no fear this time as there had been with the snake, this time she could actually appreciate how incredible it was to be looking at something that simply should not be anymore.

Suddenly the young woman wanted to know everything about these creatures- how they had lived, when, where, for how long and how similar were they to the zebras and horses she was far more familiar with. She felt a thrill of fascination within her, the same spark of excitement and hunger for knowledge that drove the others to continue with this incredible but dangerous work.

“It's not just monsters,” Melina murmured appreciatively.

“None of them are monsters,” Connor argued.

He glanced to her cautiously, wary of offending her and yet wanting her to understand because he believed it might help with the fear she still clung to of a demon snake.

“They're just animals surviving.”

Melina frowned and continued to keep her eyes on the horses, conscious that if she looked to Connor she might glare at him. A small part of her mind told her he was right, reminding her of the fear tourists had of the hyenas they saw crushing bones or the lions that stalked through the long grass to pounce upon antelope. It was true, predators in the animal kingdom did not have the sense of good and evil as people did, they did not hunt for sport and killed only for self-preservation out of hunger or defence not to murder. Animals could not murder and yet Melina kept seeing the cruel, soulless gaze of the giant snake that squeezed the life from her sister, and the enraged glower of the one that had pursued her and Captain Ryan, determined to destroy them even through a hail of bullets. She couldn't think of those snakes as predators defending themselves or hunting, they had been evil.

The horses' ears dipped back and they stamped the ground with their hooves nervously. One shook its donkey like face with a sudden violence and a zebra like bray escaped it. All three kept lifting their heads, nostrils flaring as they seemed to search for something that should not be there.

“What's gotten into them?” Connor pondered. “Do you think they sense us?”

Melina was tense as she watched them, wary now as she felt her heart escalate in her chest. She knew this behaviour and it wasn't a reaction to her and Connor. The horses weren't looking in their direction.

“Connor-” Melina didn't get to finish her suggestion.

\----

Captain Tom Ryan was unimpressed as he paced through the muck and grass that formed the great English countryside. There was also a copious amount of cow dung and rabbit pellets to navigate around and one unfortunate dead squirrel who appeared to have been half-mauled by a bird before being unexpectedly abandoned and was now in a state of decay too far gone to be worth food to any other scavenger. He considered dryly that his years of war experience were not meant to have led to trekking through animal shit and muck searching for horses.

The tall blonde walked with his preferred member of the civilians- Professor Nick Cutter. Nick was less heart than Abby, not so arrogant as Stephen and less chatty than Connor although he had his moments of irritation too, nearly always connected to his mysterious ex-wife Helen Cutter. Helen hadn't shown up on the radar since they had lost her in the Paleocene era of La Guajira and whilst she couldn't have taken the anomaly to the present that they had neither Nick nor Ryan believed that Helen was trapped in the era of the Titanoboa. Helen had a knack for reappearing proving that she had some superior knowledge to the anomalies than everyone else and despite Nick and Connor's best efforts they still couldn't crack that knowledge.

Nick plodded through muck, plop and grass happily, excited for what they might find. He wore a plain green t-shirt, having given into the sunshine, dark jeans and black boots that been stained even before the trek. Despite being a university professor Nick seemed made for the outdoor work, he was tough, fast, quick thinking, decent with a tranquilliser gun and rarely frightened by some of the predators they had dealt with. It was a wonder how Nick had adapted to his current lifestyle so ably, at least with Stephen it made sense given how the man had experience with guns and was at the prime of physical fitness but Nick seemed to hold his own and when he couldn't match beasts with braun he usually overcame them with his fast thinking.

Ryan admired the professor even though he felt Nick's complicated feelings for Helen were a liability and that through Nick the lesser capable civilians of Abby and Connor were able to come on board with what Ryan was convinced should be a military only mission. Now there was Melina too, Ryan had seen her only a handful of times since he'd found her that evening in the park, brief moments of passing when Claudia had brought her to the Home Office building as a reluctant peace offering. The blonde soldier had been less than impressed to see her in tow this afternoon with Claudia, ready to get mixed up in a possible anomaly affair. Ryan was wary that the woman might just throw herself desperately through the first showing of fractured lights she saw in the hopes of getting back to her time and end up in greater trouble as a result.

Ryan halted suddenly and cocked his head slightly to the right. He glimpsed a cluster of trees in the distance, situated at the bottom of a very slight decline.

Nick noticed the captain's sudden change in stance and followed his gaze to the thicket.

There came a noise like thunder, a rumbling roar that was both terrific and terrifying with its volume. It was a sound that awoke the primordial urge of fear that every living creature off the apex predator line had carried down from his ancestors, an inherited urge of always being wary of the glowing eyes and growls in the shadows, the one that told prey to stay hidden in the deep warrens and early mankind to hug close to the fire.

For a moment Nick and Ryan were frozen as nature fought to override them and the fight or flight instinct kicked in. Nick's body tightened, building with a sudden rush of adrenaline as his mind shrieked at him to get bolting away from that horrifying noise.

Ryan took a tight grip of his sleek, black rifle, his mind reminding his body that man had come a long way from the days of the fire filled caves and had new ways now to defend his limited body from the beasts of the world. He was wary of going to the thicket, no sense in seeking out the danger until he could see it but then he saw the trees fall, two mighty oaks brought down with an incredible force resulting in very human yells. Somebody was down there and the captain knew that as the military man he was going to have to be the one who saved them.

\---

Connor and Melina moved in a panic. Their moment of peace with the horses had turned to violence and gore without warning as a huge creature had charged through the trees to slaughter the horses. It had come as a colossal force of fur, claws and teeth, too large to be evaded and too strong to consider the trees a hindrance as it forced its way through them to prey.

Fear froze the pair in place as blood splashed against the trees and the beast stood and let out a bellowing roar.

Connor craned his neck to take the creature in. To say it was tall was an understatement, it was making the trees look small as on two feet it probably reached the height of an elephant. It had a thick coat of dark brown fur now shiny with fresh blood and four powerful sets of claws as long as knives, and at the top of its towering structure was a face with a short muzzle full of bloodstained teeth. It was the biggest bear Connor had ever seen.

Not done with the hunt as it sensed the slight trembles at the bush, the bear turned its head to sniff the air with its powerful nose.

Connor swallowed hard as the bear dropped to four legs suddenly and came charging straight at them.

Melina and Connor separated, diving to either side to evade the huge body of fur and fangs coming towards them. As it drove its heavy hide into the trees it caused a tree on either side of its shoulder blades to give way with a loud creak.

Melina screamed instinctively and threw herself through the air to one side to dodge the falling tree. It fell with a loud thud causing the earth beneath her to tremble as she rolled on the dirt clumsily.

Connor was not so lucky, a quicker stride than Melina put him at the disadvantage of being near the top end of the second tree as it gave way to the bear's force. He stumbled and fell as branches drove him down to the dirt and tangled him in twigs and leaves. The force of the fall caused him to bounce up slightly into the mass of foliage. His fortune was that he was struck by the weaker ones and tangled in thin limbs of wood and dying clusters of leaves rather than being struck a more deadly blow.

Slightly confused and in pain, Connor's anxiety took over as he realised he was caught in a tangle of branches. He twisted and turned frantically in an attempt to escape, his struggles catching the attention of the bear who had briefly pondered which of the two to seek out.

“Help!” Connor yelled as he felt the ground quiver with the force of the bear running to him. “HELP!” Connor's yells grew louder as he saw through a cluster of red and amber leaves the approach of the great beast.

The bear swiped with its front right paw, claws cutting through branches and leaves like they were straw. The paw swept above Connor sending twigs and acorns showering down on him. He closed his eyes to lessen the damage to his pupils as he tried to squirm back from the claws when they came again.

With a grunt Connor slid down as branches broke beneath him and gravity took him further from the hunting paw.

The bear, determined not to miss its prey, rose to its two feet and roared again.

Connor swallowed hard as he saw the face suddenly appear above him, obsidian eyes glinting as they searched for prey. Connor felt a lump in his throat as a sob threatened to crawl up as the head moved closer and he felt the heat of the air escape from the bear's probing nostrils.

The furred muzzle pressed through leaves and branches, following the scent of fear to Connor.

The young man closed his eyes, determined that he wouldn't see his death if he could help it.

The rock that struck the bear wasn't painful, considering its size it was perhaps similar to the nudge of a fly on a human but it fulfilled its purpose nonetheless as it smacked off the bear's right ear, pushing it forward momentarily with the movement and causing a growl of irritation from the apex predator.

When another rock hit the back of its skull with a soft thunk, the bear was prompted to turn and see the cause.

Melina stared up at the creature in terror as she realised she had no follow through for her plan. All she had thought was to get the bear away from Connor.

Seeing a new source of prey, the bear turned, dropping to four feet once more before it started to move.

Melina turned and ran, carried by a rush of fear fuelled adrenaline as she didn't know what else she should do other than flee. She weaved through the trees of the thicket but they were no deterrent for the bear who charged through the trunks with only a bellow of displeasure to show its difficulty.

Panting, Melina searched amongst the foliage for something to help. She saw a gap under an arched bush and dove for it head first. Skidding on the muck and skinning her knees in the process, she dragged herself along the ground and under the bush desperately, hoping somehow that the bear wouldn't see her retreat.

The young woman tried to silence her betraying gasps of fear as she belly crawled over soil and rocks through to another cluster of trees. She spied a broken branch with a jagged edge, to the beast pursuing her it was probably comparable to a toothpick but it was all there was. She crawled to it, grasped in one hand and rolled round just as she felt the hot breath of the bear as its furious head plunged through the bush after her.

The sharp end of the branch impaled the bear's right eye causing it to pull back with a roar of pain and fury. It dragged the branch from the woman's hands with enough force to slice both her palms to ribbons with splinters.

As Melina attempted to stand to escape she was struck without warning by a paw. The young woman fell hard and fast with the impact, slamming into the ground as her right side bloomed with blood where the edges of the paw's claws had caught her. She was winded by the blow and her vision flashed a vibrant red as her body flooded with pain.

As the bear readied to strike out with its muzzle gunfire suddenly filled the air causing it to turn from the fallen woman with another irate roar.

Nick looked at the bear with wide eyes, stunned momentarily by its size and girth before raising his tranquilliser gun quickly. He knew he wasn't going to have enough to knock the thing out cold but maybe he could make it dozy.

As Nick took aim, Captain Ryan continued to shoot at the creature, he didn't care about preserving its life he just needed to keep everyone safe from it until the soldiers he had called to arrived.

Connor scrambled out from the tree top at last, stumbling and staggering upright as he attempted to run before he was even fully on his feet. He glanced back as his brain registered the sound of gunfire as he came to a halt.

Blood spatters appeared on the bear's pelt where some bullets successfully went through its thick coat of fur to find flesh but it only seemed slightly annoyed by the attack. It swung a paw outwards to the soldier but the blonde jumped back and offered another bullet in response.

“Well that is one big bear,” Abby marvelled as she arrived at a sprint alongside Stephen and several soldiers.

The soldiers immediately started shooting.

Nick frowned at the display, wondering why they couldn't even consider for just one second that this was just a lost creature in need of being guided to its home.

The bear rose to its hind legs again in an attempt to intimidate them with its height but it only managed to expose its underbelly in the process to their gunfire. What was meant to be a fearsome roar turned to a cry of pain as the bear started to succumb to its injuries.

No longer simply trying to delay injuring to himself, Ryan took the chance to take a careful aim. He cocked the rifle, took a moment to assure himself of his target and squeezed the trigger.

The bear jerked back with a loud roar of agony as a bullet obliterated its left eye. It staggered round in a circle, growling and groaning as it shook its head and blood sprayed out. The ground around it vibrated with its mad, circular rampage causing Nick to jump back as he almost stumbled with the impact.

As if inebriated the bear suddenly slowed and staggered from side to side, crashing into a tree as it did.

Ryan watched it carefully, rifle still up as he wondered dully if the bear was capable of faking an injury.

With a final cry of pain the bear fell sideways with one final mighty thud.

“That could've ended better,” Stephen commented grimly as he saw the blood seeping out the ruined eye socket and pooling on the ground.

“It could have ended worse,” Ryan retorted solemnly as he bypassed the younger man to head for Melina who remained out cold on the ground.

Abby's vibrant blue eyes scanned the half-destroyed thicket area quickly. She spotted Connor and quipped, “Connor are you alright?”

The dark haired male gave her a dopey smile in answer as he brushed down his top off tree debris. “Yeah, tree-mendous, if you get my drift.” He gave a short chuckle at his own joke.

Nick was looking to the bear with the same stare of guilty grief as Stephen. He knew the captain had had to act fast with Melina and Connor in danger but these were creatures that should be saved at all costs not destroyed. The redhead wondered curiously as he had before what impact there might be to them dying in this time instead of their own, did it fracture the universe? Did it happen when they killed people in this time who otherwise might have led longer lives? Was their unknown future suddenly darker because a potential scientist had been devoured by a mosasaur while taking a swim? Who could really say?

Melina jumped with a scream as she felt a hand upon her shoulder. She turned to scramble backwards, eyes wide with fear as heart started racing and her lungs escalated to pump out air in short, speedy breaths.

“Bb..bbe...bear!” Melina yelled out the word in a terrorised cry of warning.

Ryan remained in a crouch, now holding his hand up harmlessly to her. “It's dead,” he stated flatly.

He jerked back with one thumb in the direction of the large corpse.

Melina's eyes rolled in that direction, still wide with too much of the whites showing.

Connor looked over to the young woman worriedly as he heard her yell. Spying Nick, he hurried to stand beside him.

“She saved my life you know,” Connor admitted quietly. “The bear was coming from me and she got it away somehow.”

Nick nodded although his gaze was elsewhere now. “Let's find the anomaly, make sure it closes,” he said. “Even if there's nothing to go back through it,” he added bluntly.

Connor nodded too. “It must be near here, the bear seemed to come from nowhere and the horses were here,” he said.

The pair headed through the other side of the thicket to investigate and were pleased to find a small shimmer of flickering diamond lights in the air. The anomaly was weak and fading, taking away their chance to glimpse a prehistoric era.

Back through the trees, Melina was attempting to subdue her fear but the panic was dominating and her chest continued to rise and fall rapidly.

“Why do they always have to be bigger?” she complained in a weak show of humour.

Ryan's lip twitched at the corner as he almost smiled but then he spied the blood soaking her khaki shirt and he frowned.

“You've been injured.”

The blonde moved towards her, glancing down to her torso where the blood was letting out.

“Let me take a look.”

Although Ryan phrased it as a request his tone made it more of an order.

Melina sagged back slightly as she fumbled the buckle of the belt about her waist before freeing it so she could lift the shirt slightly to expose the damage. She winced, gritting her teeth as the pain suddenly flooded through her. Shock had allowed her a respite from it but now the reality of her wound was back. Her green-grey gaze rolled skywards to the powder blue sky.

“Is it bad?” she queried.

Ryan surveyed the tears the claws had left, they were deep but small.

“You'll live but we should work on stopping that bleeding,” he advised calmly.

She nodded. “Alright. It started so nice too,” she murmured as she released the ends of her shirt, “with the horses. No one said there might be giant bears.”

“I don't think anyone knew,” Ryan retorted.

The blonde reached out a hand to help her to his feet as he stood.

“No, I suppose not. Nice to know even with all your experience with these anomalies all of you are still surprised,” she murmured dryly as she accepted the hand.

She winced as the captain pulled her to her feet and her torso throbbed in protest.

“The anomaly has closed,” Nick announced as he and Connor returned to the group.

Connor's eyes widened as he saw the bloodstains on Melina's shirt.

“Melina are you alright?” he queried with alarm.

Melina glanced up to Ryan. “Apparently I'll live,” she retorted. She sounded breathless and her face screwed up in pain as she started to walk.

Ryan had an arm about the young woman's torso, against her uninjured side as he supported her as she walked. He looked down to her when he felt her tremble and realised that she was just putting on a front of calm and was still terrified from her ordeal. He resisted the temptation to comment on it and advise her that this was no work for civilians.

The group retreated back to their vehicles and an astonished Claudia and curious farmer.

“What in the hell kind of horses are they then?” the farmer quipped as he eyed Melina's bloodstained shirt with intrigue.

“The bad kind,” Connor lied quickly, “nasty things. Anyway, they're off.”

Claudia stepped up to Ryan and Melina, looking from one to the other in surprise. “What happened?”

“A big bear,” Melina murmured, “a very, very, very big bear.”

Claudia glanced up to Ryan.

“Disposal crew will be on it,” Ryan advised. “Give them a couple of hours, make sure the area stays clear. We've got a first aid kit in the car, should sort the worst of this.”

Claudia's dark gaze darted back to Melina. “Will you be okay?”

“Physically, yes, mentally, not since I ended up in a prehistoric pond, no,” Melina retorted dryly.

Ryan guided the woman to a plain black car parked on a wide stretch of road with several other vehicles lined up behind it. He tugged out a key, pressed the button to unlock and urged her round to the rear. After opening the door, Ryan eased the woman to sit sideways on the back passenger seats.

He released her to retreat to the boot from which he hunted out a first aid kit. He returned to her with it, opened it up and rested it on the floor of the car.

The young woman had turned pale and had a thin sheen of sweat soaking her skin.

“Alright,” Melina said before Ryan could speak, “hand me the antiseptic, I'll put it on. Then the gauze.”

Ryan looked at her curiously. “I can do it for you.”

Melina shook her head. “I've dealt with plenty of animal related injuries before captain.”

Ryan snorted at this before he crouched and reached out the antiseptic. “Well if you don't want help,” he scorned as he held it out to her.

“Don't take it personally it's just when it comes to pouring antiseptic onto fresh wounds,” Melina retorted as she leaned back across the seats and raised her shirt to expose the wound again, “I'd rather do it myself.”

Melina gritted her free hand tightly before pouring.

“Son of a bitchfaced monkey!” she shrieked as the wound felt like it was simmering with the sting of the liquid.

The laugh escaped the soldier before he could help it. He shook his head at the cursing as he continued to smile. “I haven't heard that one before,” he murmured.

“No?” Melina let out a hiss of pain. “Maybe it's an eighties thing.”

“I was alive then you know.”

“Yes but probably quite young, would I have been old enough to be your mother?” she pried before giving herself another dose.

“Shit stained crackers!” she howled.

Ryan's frown returned. “Would you stop with that age paradox thing, you're twenty-six and I'm thirty-four,” he scolded her. “And you can call me Tom.”

“Why?” she hissed out as she dug her elbows back into the leather seats for support as she tried to sit up again. “I thought your name was Ryan.”

“You didn't twig that was my last name with everyone calling me Captain Ryan?”

She shrugged. “I figured it was a personal preference. So, Tom Ryan, do people get confused and call you Ryan?”

“Well you have,” he pointed out. “I don't mind the Ryan.”

Melina smiled. “It happens a lot doesn't it?”

“Maybe,” he murmured as he reached down for the bandage roll and handed it to her.

Melina fumbled to bind the bandage tight about her torso, wincing and simultaneously yelping and cursing as her wound continued to throb.

“Well, now that I've given blood to the job I should definitely get it,” she said happily.


End file.
